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■ 






' ' ■ . 









THE 


Religions of the world 

i 

The Doctrines and Creeds of Mankind 

STATED IN 

Official Documents 

BY 

Eminent Representative Expounders 


EDITED BY 




J. W. Hanson, A. M., D. D. 


Illustrated by many portraits and other engravings 


Our little systems have their day ; 

They have their day and cease to be; 
They are but broken lights of Thee; 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they. 

— Tennyson. 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, 

Ey ROBERT O. LAW, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D, C. 




Zoroaster TT: 
Buddha t mt 01 

£OnfUCiU$ " 'china! ”' 

\ 


mobammed of 


m< 


• 


JESUS CHRIST 

The Light of the World. 










































L And it came to pass, after these things, that Abraham sat at the 
door of his tent, about the going down of the sun* 

2. And behold a man, bowed with age, coming from the way of the 
wilderness, leaning on a staff. 

3. And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, “ Turn 
in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt 
arise early in the morning and go thy way.” 

4. But the man said, “Nay, for I will abide under this tree.” 

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly, so he turned, and they went 
into the tent, and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat. 

6. A.nd when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said 
unto him, “Wherefore dost thou not worship the Most High God, 
Creator of heaven and earth ? ” 

7. And the man answered and said, “I do not worship thy God, 
neither do I call upon His name; for I have made to myself a god, which 
abideth always in mine house, and provideth me all things.” 

8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man, and he arose 
and fell upon him, and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness. 

9. And at midnight God called unto Abraham, saying, “Where is 
the stranger? ” 

tO. And Abraham answered and said, “Lord, he would not worship 
Thee, neither would he call upon Thy name; therefore have I driven him 
out from before my face into the wilderness.” 

H. And God said, “Have I borne with him these hundred and 
ninety and eight years, and nourished him and clothed him, notwith¬ 
standing his rebellion against Me; and couldst not thou, that art thyself 
a sinner, bear with him one night ? ” 

12. And Abraham said, “Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot 
against His servant; lo, I have sinned, forgive me, I pray thee.” 

13. And he arose and went forth into the wilderness, and sought dili¬ 
gently for the man and found him. 

J4. And returned with him to his tent; and when he had entreated 
him kindly, he sent him away in the morning with gifts. 

15. And God spake again unto Abraham, saying, “For this, thy sin, 
shall thy seed be afflicted four hundred years in a strange land. 

f6. “But for thy repentance, will I deliver them; and they shall 
come forth with power, and with gladness of heart, and with much sub- 
s ance.” 


6 


BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 


Preface 



ELIGION is indigenous to human nature. All 

lands and ages have had their altars and 

their shrines. From every human heart, 

sage or savage, the aspiration of worship has 

ascended; in each has dwelt at least a spark 

of the Divine Light. Some 

“accent of the Holy Ghost 
The heedless world has never lost.” 

Plutarch truthfully declared that though 

he had found communities without laws, and 

without art, a tribe without an altar he had 

never found. 

In the centuries that have gone various and 
varying systems of religion have prevailed. Each 
contained a portion of that spirit that was poured without measure 
upon the “Light of the World.” Of some of them we know little; 
of others we know much; of yet others, nothing. Of those yet prev¬ 
alent, and of many extinct, this volume will give such statements 
as shall inform the inquiring as to the principles and doctrines, not 
only of the religions outside of Christendom, but also of the different 
Christian sects—a bird’s-eye view of the religious world. 

The claims of great antiquity, of perfection, or other assump¬ 
tions made by any of them are neither disputed nor defended, but, 
as far as possible, their principles are given in their own historical 
documents, and by their own adherents and advocates. 

Of course this volume does not pretend to enumerate all the 
sects that have ever existed. Such a task would occupy enormous 
space, and would interest only the antiquarian. Blunt names more 
than a hundred Christian sects before the seventh century, and 
some fifty during the mediaeval ages. Scotland, alone, has devel- 

7 





8 


PREFACE. 


oped nearly forty, besides those that grew outside its prolific soil. 
Only the Scottish intellect can define the differences between some 
of them, or give any excuse for their existence. The “ land of cakes ” 
has harbored the Established Kirk, Cameronians (1672), Secession 
Kirk (1733), Burghers, Anti-Burghers, Original Burghers, Old 
Light Burghers, New Light Burghers, Old Light Anti-Burghers, New 
Light Anti-Burghers, Relief Synod, Protesters’ United Secessionists, 
Revolutioners’ Original Seceders, United Old School, Morisonians, 
Lree Kirk (1843), United Presbyterian (1847), Sweet Singers, The 
Men, Non-Jurors, Moderates, Buchanites, Scottish Baptists, Marrow 
Men, Rowites or Campbellites (not Christian Disciples), Glasites, 
Daleites, Sandemanians, Wilkinsonians, Haldanites, etc., etc. There 
are some twelve kinds of Baptists—Campbellites or Christian Disci¬ 
ples, Lree-Will, General (Armenian), Hardshell, Old School, Partic¬ 
ular, Se-Baptists, Scottish, Seventh-Day, Six-Principle, Tunker or 
Dunkard, and Unitarian. The Methodists are separated into Meth¬ 
odist Episcopal, Calvinistic Methodist, Welsh Calvinistic, New Con¬ 
nection, Primitive, Irish, Bryanite, Associate Methodist Reformers, 
United Tree Church, African Episcopal, Zion Wesleyan, Wesleyan 
and Methodist Protestant. 

The more important of these are briefly described, and at least 
a bird’s-eye view is given of the noticeable non-Christian and Christian 
sects that exist or have existed. The larger space is given to the 
more important ones, especially to those that are now extant, and 
such descriptions are given as will enable the reader to ascertain 

WHAT THE WORLD BELIEVES. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

I. The Divine Being. 17 

II. Man. 61 

III. I mmortality. 85 

IV. Comparative Religion. 95 

V. Shintoism. 119 

VI. Hinduism. 125 

VII. Buddhism. 165 

VIII. Zoroastrianism.201 

IX. Jainism. 223 

X. Brahma Somaj. 233 

XI. Confucianism. 249 

XII. Mohammedanism. 275 

XIII. Judaism. 313 

XIV. Christianity. 349 

XV. Incarnation of Christ.385 

XVI. The Holy Scriptures. 417 

XVII. Orthodox Greek Church. 443 

XVIII. Catholicism. 457 

XIX. Episcopacy. 501 

XX. Lutheranism. 513 

XXI. Presbyterianism. 523 

XXII. Universalism. 553 

XXIII. Unitarianism. 561 

XXIV. Methodism. 569 

XXV. Congregationalism. 581 

XXVI. Friends. 591 

XXVII. Baptists. 607 

XXVIII. Adventists. 627 

XXIX. Christian Science.635 

)XXX. Reformed Episcopal Church. 647 

XXXI. New Jerusalem Church. 653 

XXXII. Mormons. 657 

XXXIII. Salvation Army. 663 

XXXIV. Minor Christian Sects.667 

XXXV. Minor Non-Christian Sects. 693 

XXXVI. North American Indians. 709 

Addendum. Confucianism and Christianity. 719 



9 













































ENTRY OF CHRIST INTO JERUSALEM.—From a painting by Plockhurst. 
















GENERAL INDEX 


page. 

Abecedarians. 670 

Acephali. 669 

Adamites. 695 

Adventism. 6*9 

African Methodist. 577 

Agnostte. n . 669 

Agnosticism. 695 

Albigenses. 6t>9 

Allenites. 695 

Almericians. 670 

Alogians...670 

American Puritan Ranters. 590 

Amsdorians. 670 

Anabaptists. 612 

Anthropomorphites. 670 

Antiburghers. 583 

Antinomians. 670 

Aquarians. 671 

Arians. 671 

Arminians. 671 

Associate Presbyterians. 535 

Augsburg Confession. 518 

Avesta. 204 

Aztecs, Religion of. 718 

Babylon, Religion of Ancient. 717 

Baptists. 609 

Barkers. 679 

Bible Christian Methodists. 575 

Bible Communists. 700 

Brahmanism. 127 

Brahma Somaj . 233 

Brownists. 585 

Bryanites. 575 

Buddha. 168 

Buddhism . 165 

Calixtines. 672 

Calvinism. 525 

Calvinistic Methodism. 575 

Cameronians. 535 

Campbellites. 613 

Catholic, Old.461-682 

Catholic, Roman. 459 

Chaldaic Christians.'. 448 

Christadelphians. 688 

Christians.613-672 

Christianity. 349 

Christian Science. 637 

Christ, Jesus. 351 

Church of Scotland. 530 

Colyridians. 673 

Comparative Religions. 95 

Confucianism. 249 

Confucianism and Cnristianity. 719 

Congregationalism. 583 

Cononites. 673 

Consubstantiation. 518 

Coptic Church. 447 

Corrupticolae. 673 

Covenanters. 534 

Cumberland Presbyterians. 547 

Daleites. 673 

Darwinism . 696 

Deism. 698 

Disciples of Christ. 663 

Disruption, Scottish. 534 

Divine Being, The. 17 

Docetae. 673 

Donatists.... . 673 


PAGE. 


Dorrelites. 698 

Druids. 698 

Druse. 279 

Dualism. 698 

Dunkards. 614 

Dutch Church. 530 

Ebelians. 674 

Ebionites. 674 

Egyptians, Religion of Ancient. 717 

Episcopalians. 503 

Erastianism.*.. 674 

Essenes. 317 

Eucratites. 674 

Eutychians. 447 

Evangelical Alliance. 675 

Evangelical Union. 535 

Evolutionists. 707 

Extinct Religions. 717 

Family of Love. 675 

Fifth Monarchy Men. 676 

Fire Worshipers. 203 

Free Church. 531 

Free Church of England. 676 

Free-Lovers. 700 

Freewill Baptists. 614 

Friends. 593 

Glassites. 676 

Gnosticism. 676 

God. 19 

'Greek, Orthodox. 443 

Greeks, Religion of Ancient.717 

Hallemists. 677 

Hermesianism. 677 

H iclcsitc Friends. 596 

Hinduism. 125 

Hoffmanists. 678 

Hopkinsiatis. 590 

Huguenots. 678 

Hussites. 678 

Immortality. 85 

Incarnation of Christ. 385 

Indians, Religion of. 709 

Infralapsarians. 679 

Inspiration. 419 

Institutionists. 698 

Irvingites. 536 

Jainism. 223 

Jerkers. 679 

Jesuits. 462 

Jewish Belief. 316 

Jews, Reformed. 318 

Judaism. 313 

Juggernaut. \31 

Keithiaus. 596 

Krishna. 131 

Lamaism. 171 

Libertines. 679 

Lutheran. 515 

Man. 61 

Manichaeism. 679 

Materialism. 698 

Melchites. 680 

Mennonites. 615 

Men of Understanding. 680 

11 







































































































































12 


GENERA L INDEX. 


Methodism. 

Methodist Episcopal 

Millerism ..... . 

Mohammedanism ... 

Monophysites. 

Monothelitism. 

Montanism. 

Moravians. 

Mormons. 

Muckers. 

Muggletonians. 

Mutazilites. 


PAGE. 
... 571 
... 573 
... 629 
... 275 
... 417 
... 447 
... 680 
... 680 
... 659 
... 681 
... 682 
... 279 


Nature Worship. 

Nazarite. 

Neo-Platonism. 

Nestor ianism. 

New Born ...... 

New Connexion Methodist. .. 

New Jerusalem Church. 

New Lights, Fifth Monarchy. 
New Lights, Freewill Baptist 

New Lights, Separatist. 

Nirvana. 

Novatianism. 


699 

682 

699 

448 

699 

575 

655 

676 

614 

612 

173 

682 


Old Catholics. 


,461-682 


Pantheism. 699 

Papal Infallibility. 461 

Parable on Toleration. 6 

Peculiar People. 683 

Pelagians.. 683 

Perfectionists . 7u0 

Pharisees. 316 

Picardists. 700 

Plymouth Brethren. 683 

Positivism. 700 

Presbyterian Baptists. 612 

Presbyterians...... 625, 

Primitive Methodists. 575 

Protestant Episcopalians. 503 

Protestant Methodists.. — 575 

Purana.'. 131 

Puritans .. 540 

Pythagorism. 700 

Quakers. 593 

Quietism. 684 

Raschalnikis. 419 

Rationalists. 701 

Reformed Church. 534 

Reformed Church in America. 550 

Reformed Episcopal Church. 649 

Reformed Presbyterian Church .— 535 

Reformed Presbyterian Church in America. 550 

Relief Church. 533 

Restitutionists. 684 

Rig Veda. 130 

Rogerians. 590 

Homans, Religion of Ancient. 717 

Russian Greek Church. 446 

Sabbatarians. 615 

Sabellianism. 684 

Sabianism. 684 

Sadducees. 317 

Sadh. 134 

Saiva. 134 

Sakta. 134 

Salvation Army. 665 

Sandemanian. 685 


Scandinavian Mythology.. 

Scotism... 

Scottish Church. 

Scriptures. ••••••. .. • 

Scriptures, Catholic Views of... 
Scriptures, Jewish Views of.. . 
Scriptures, Protestant Views of 

Se-Baptists. 

Secessionists. 

Secularism. 

Seekers. -. 

Sefatians..,. 

Serpent Worship... 

Seventh-Day Baptists. 

Shafites. 

Shakers. 

Shamanism. 

Shintoism.. 

Shorter Catechism. 

Sikh. 

Simeon ites. 

Six-Principle Baptists. 

Socinians. 

Sonites. 

Southcotians.. .... 

Spiritualism. 

Sun Worship. 

Supralapsarian. 

Suttee... 

Swedenborgians. 

Synod of Dort. 


PAGE. 

... 718 
... 685 
... 530 
... 417 
... 431 
... 423 
... 435 
... 613 
... 535 
... 702 
... 685 
... 279 
... 702 
... 615 
... 279 
... 685 
... 702 
... 119 
... 528 
... 135 
... 686 
... 612 
... 568 
... 280 
... 686 
... 703 
... 703 
... 687 
... 133 
... 655 
527-672 


Taborites. 687 

Taoism. 169 

Theism. 698 

Theistic Church. 704 

Theodotians. 687 

Theosophy.688-704 

Thirty-nine Articles. 506 

Thomasism. 688 

Thomism. 688 

Transmigration. 133 

Trent, Council of. 460 

Unitarians. 563 

United Brethren. 680 

United Brethren in Christ. 681 

United Free Church. 532 

United Presbyterianism. 533 

United Presbyterianism in America. 550 

Universal Friends. 596 

Universalists. 555 

Vaishnava. 134 

Valdenses. 689 

Valentiuians. 688 

Valseshika. 134 

Veda. 129 


Wahabi. 280 

Waldenses. 689 

Wakemanites. 689 

Wesleyan Methodists. 574 

Wesleyan Reformers. 575 

Westminster (’onfession. 528 

Wicklifites. 690 

Wilburites. 596 

Wilkinsonians. 596 

Zend A vesta. 204 

Zion African Methodist. 577 

Zoarites. 519 

Zoroastrianism. 201 

Zwinglians.690 










































































































































INDEX OF PAPERS AND ADDRESSES. 


Advent Church, Basis of. 

Advent Church, History of .... 
All-important Quaker Doctrine 

Americanism . 

Armenian Church. 


W. J. Hobbs. 632 

Mrs. E. S. Mansfield... 630 

H. M. Jenkins. 595 

E. H. Cans.479 

Chatschumgan.454 


Brahma Somaj. 

Brahma Somaj . 

Buddha, World’s Debt to. 

Buddhism. 

Buddhism. 

Buddhism, Law of, Cause and Effect 


B. Nagarkar.236 

P. C. Mozoomdar.242 

H. Dharmapala. 187 

B. Ashitsu. 177 

B. Yatsubuchi. 174 

S. Soyen. 197 


Catholic Church and Missionary Work. 

Catholic Church and Poor. 

Catholic Church and the Social Question.... 

Christendom, Reunion of... 

Christian Science. 

Christ—World’s Savior .. 

Christianity—Religion of Facts. 

Christianity to Other Religions. 

Comparative Religion. 

Comparative Theology. 

Conditions of Labor. 

Confucianism and Christianity. 

Confucianism. 

•'Confucianism. 

Congregationalism, First Things on. 

Congregationalism, Genesis of. 

Congregationalism of Today. 

Creed That Needs No Revision. 

Cumberland Church, Doctrines of. 

Cumberland Church, Mission of. 

Cumberland Church, Origin of. 


....W. Elliott. 

_C. F. Donnelly.. 

.... J. A. Watterson. 

_.P. Schaff. 

....E. J. F. Eddy... 

. ...B. F. Mills. 

_G. P. Fisher .... 

_J. S. Dennis. 

_G. S. Goodspeed 

....C. P. Tiele. 

_Judge Semple.. 

. ... Li Hung Chang. 

....K. H. Ho. 

. ...P. K. Yu. 

.. ..W. Walker. 

_S. Gilbert. 

... H. A. Stimson... 

_E. V. Zollars_ 

_D. M. Harris.... 

....C. H. Bell. 

... .J. G. White. 


483 

473 

488 

363 

638 

387 

377 

355 

99 

97 

491 

719 

265 

255 

589 
588 

590 
613 

548 

549 
547 


Divine Being, Argument for. 

Divine Being, Demonstration of. 
Divine Being, Moral Evidence of 
Divine Element in Rest Day .... 
Duties of Capital. 


W. T. Harris. 23 

A. F. Hewitt. 45 

A. W. Momerie. 33 

A. H. Lewis.617 

Wm. Barry. 495 


Extinction of Evil 


Wm. Sheldon.633 


Friends Church, Mission of 


J. Wood.602 


Grounds of Sympathy in Religion.A. M. Powell. 

Hebrew Scriptures.A. Kohut. 

^ Hinduism.M. B. Dvivedi. 

Hinduism as a Religion.S. Vivekananda.... 

Holy Scriptures (Catholic View).Monseigneur Seton 

Holy Scriptures, Truthfulness of.C. A. Briggs. 

Human Need Supplied by Catholicism.Cardinal Gibbons.. 

Immortality.P. S. Moxom. 

Incarnation (Catholic View). J- J- Keane. 

Incarnation (Protestant View) .J. K. Smyth. 


597 

423 

137 

155 

431 

435 

465 

87 

399 

409 


13 




































































































14 


INDEX OF PAPERS AND ADDRESSES. 




Independence of Holy See.M. F. Morris. 499 

Indians, North American, Religion of.A. C. Fletcher. 711 

Influence of Social Condition.A. R. Webb. 281 

Inspiration.Encyc. Diet.419 


Jain Ethics and History.V. A. Gandlhi.226 

Jewish Theology.;.I. M. Wise.321 

Judaism, Historic.H. P. Mendes.325 


Koran, The 


G. E. Post. 293 


Lutheran Church and Higher Criticism.S. F. Breckenridge. 521 

Lutheran Church in History.E. J. Wolf.520 

Lutherans.L. M. Heilman.519 

Lutherans in All Lands.J. N. Lenke.522 


Man’s Place in Nature.A. B. Bruce . 63 

Man’s Position in Christianity.T. S. Byrne. 69 

Methodism, Peculiarities of.T. B. Neely.579 

Methodism, Philosophy of.M. S. Terry.577 

Methodism, Polity of.J. Todd.577 

Methodism, Status of.H. K. Carroll.577 

Mohammedanism and Christianity...-.Geo. Washburn.297 


Orthodox Greek Church 


Dion. Latas 


451 


Parseeism. 

Poverty, Cause and Remedy. 

Presbyterianism and Education... . 
Presbyterianism Deeds, not Words 

Presbyterianism, Doctrines of. 

Presbyterianism, History of. 

Presbyterianism, Missionary. 

Presbyterianism, Polity of. 


.J. J. Modi.... 
,Thos. Dwight 
, D. S. Schaff.. 
.J. L. Withrow 
. T. G. Darling 
.G. M. Grant.. 

. H. D. Jenkins 
. A. C. Zenos.. 


207 

497 

542 

537 

541 

545 

545 

537 


Quaker Doctrine.H. M. Jenkins. 595 

Queen Isabella.M. J. Onahan.485 


Reformed Episcopal Church 

Resurrection. 

Revivals. 


S. Fallows. 651 

A. W. Sibley. 633 

F. C. Iglehart.579 


Shintoism. R. Shibata. 121 


Taoism.P. K. Yu. 


169 


Unitarian Idea.T. R. Sheer. 567 

Umtarianism, Modern. J. Martineau. 566 

Unitarians.J. C. Learned. 567 

Universal Holiness...J. C. Adams. 557 

Universalism a System..S. Crane. 557 

Universalism a Bible Doctrine .A. A. Miner.!.’.. !..’!!!'. 55*4 

Universalism Primitive Christianity.J. W. Hanson.560 


World’s Debt to Buddha 
World’s Sacred Books .. 


H. Dharmapala. 187 

J. E. Carpenter. Ill 


Zoroastrianism 


J. J. Modi 


207 
























































































Index of Portraits. 


PAGE. 


Annunciation, The. H. H. Hoff¬ 
man . 348 

Arnett, Bishop B. W. 57 2 

Ascension, The. IT. H. Hoffman. 538 

Bedouin, Sheik . 312 

“Behold the Man.” H. H. Hoff¬ 
man . 118 

Black. Rev. W. F. 610 

Briggs, Rev. C. A. 436 

Buddha Idol, representing. 176 

Buddhist and Aztec Idols. 182 

Buddhist Priest, Siam. 19 2 

Buddhist Temple and Idols, Siam. 146 

Buddhist Temple, Bangkok. 248 

Buddhist Temple, Interior of. 200 

Byrne, Vy. Rev. T. S. 68 

Caravan to the Pyramids. 240 

Chancel of Lutheran Church. 516 

Chang, Li Hung. 270 

Chinese Temple . 260 

Christ, Temptation of. 78 

Christ and His Disciples. 34 

Christ and the Adulteress. ... 7 2 

Christ and the Rich Young Man.. 94 

Christ and St. Peter. 60 

Christ at Mary and Martha’s. H. 

H. Hoffman . 3° 

Christ, Entry of into Jerusalem.. 10 

Ccllyer, Rev. Robt. 564 

“Come unto Me.” H. H. Hoffman 20 

Coptic Priest . 692 

Crucifixion, The. H. H. Hoffman 5 2 

Dagoba (Sacred Shrine). i.3 2 

Damascus, Gate of. 2 3 2 

Descent from the Cross.!- 82 

Dolphin, The Golden. 254 

Easter Morning . 4M 

Fallows, Rt. Rev. Samuel.... 650 

Farlow, Rev. Alfred. 640 

Feehan, Mt. Rev. P. A. 498 

Fisher, Rev. Geo. P. 376 

Free Church. Copenhagen, Interior.. 626 

Friends, Early Persecution of. 594 

Frondhjem’s Cathedral . 606 


PAGE. 

Gcthsemane. H. H. Hoffman.... 510 


Gibbons, James, Cardinal. 464 

Gottheil, Rabbi G. 344 

Grant, Rev. Geo. M . 544 

Gunsaulus, Rev. Frank. 584 

Hanson, Rev. J. W.frontispiece 

Harris, Hon. W. T. 22 

Hewitt, Vy. Rev. A. F. 44 

Hindu Temple, Ceylon. 128 

Hindu Temple . 136 

Hindu Temple, Carving in. 186 

Hirsch, Dr. E. G. 326 

House of Pontius Pilate. 40 

Idol Deese Thoueris. 150 

Iglehardt, Rev. F. 578 

Immaculate Conception . 402 

Indian Burial in Tree Top. 714 

Ireland, Mt. Rev. John. 468 

Japanese Idols. 142 

Japanese Temple and Idol of Bud¬ 
dha . 154 

Japanese Temple . 264 

Jesus of Nazareth. 354 

Joseph Makes Himself Known to 

Elis Brethren. C. Dore. 106 

Keane, Rt. Rev. J. J. 398 

Kohut, Dr. Alexander. 422 

Latas, Mt. Rev. Dionysios. 450 

Lewis, Rev. A. H. 618 

McLaren, Rt. Rev. W. E. 504 

Mills, Rev. B. F. 388 

Miner, Rev. A. A. 558 

Mormon Tabernacle and Temple.. 660 

Moses. Michael Angelo. 112 

Moses, Hiding of. C. Koehler... 332 

Mosque, Prayer in. 306 

Mosque of Aboubakr. 218 

Mosque of Kaid Bey. 288 

Mosque of Mohamet Aly. 212 

Mosque of Mahmoudleh. 206 

Mosque of Sultan Hassan, Interior 

of . 292 

Mt. Lebanon and Cedars. 38 

Moxom, Rev. P. S. 88 


15 











































































16 


INDEX OF EOF TEA ITS. 


PAGE. 


Nazareth, An Evening in. 48 

On the Road to Calvary. H. H. 

Hoffman . 532 

Pharaoh Urges Moses to Leave 

Egypt. G. Dore. 102 

Pope Leo XIII. 489 

Pritchard, Calvin W. 600 

Procession of Holy Carpet to 

Mecca . 296 

Rachel, Tomb of. 338 

Raising the Son of the Widow of 

Nain. H. H. Hoffman. 56 

Receptacle of the Sacred Tooth of 

Buddha . T 72 

Resurrection, The . 392 

Ryan, Mt. Rev. P. J. 494 

Sacred Bull, Procession of. 160 

Satolli, Francis, Cardinal. 474 


PAGE. 

Schaff, Rev. Philip. 362 

Seton, Rt. Rev. Mgr. 430 . 

Shinto Temple . 164 

Smyth, Rev. J. K.. 408 

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. 

G. Dore . 26 

Stolz, Rabbi Joseph. 426 

St. Peter’s Cathedral, Rome. Ex¬ 
terior view . 478 

St. Peter’s Cathedral, Rome. In¬ 
terior view . 482 

Terry, Rev. M. S. 576 

Tombs in the Valley of Jehosa- 

phat . 274 

Webb, Mohammed A. R. 282 

Williams, Rev. H. S. 552 

Wise, Dr. Isaac M. 320 

Zenos, Prof. A. C. 526 






























L 

THE DIVINE BEING. 











God. 



OME idea of God seems to have been in¬ 
nate in every human mind, as it has been 
more or less prominent in all systems of 
religion, in most of which it has been, 
and is, central. If, as in Buddhism, the 
Divine Being is not made as prominent as 
in other religions, Buddhism is not, as has 
been charged, atheistic. Its liturgies con¬ 
tain many such passages as the lamas 
chant, in Thibet: “ I adore ta-tha-gata 
Amit-batha , as the Buddha of Buddhas, 
the God of Gods.” All religions contain 
the thought of a supreme being, the 
source of all things. Says an authority: 
Whether any savage tribes exist with 
no belief in any being higher than man, is doubt¬ 
ful. Burton and Sir John Lubbock are of opinion, 
as was Mr. Darwin, that there have been and still are such tribes; 
Dr. Tylor, after explaining away some alleged cases, expresses doubt 
of those remaining. Lubbock thus arranges the first great stages 
in religious thought. Atheism , understanding by this term, not a 
denial of the existence of a Deity, but an absence of any definite 
ideas on the subject. Fetichism , the stage in which man supposes he 
can force the Deity to comply with his desires. Nature-worship 
or Totemism , in which natural objects—trees, lakes, stones, animals, 
etc., are worshiped. Shamanism , in which the superior deities are far 
more powerful than man, and of a different nature. Their place of 
abode also is far away, and accessible only to Shamans. Idolatry or 
Anthropomorphism , in which the gods take still more completely the 
nature of men, being, however, more powerful. They are still amen¬ 
able to persuasion; they are a part of nature, and not creatures. They 
are represented by images or idols. In the next stage, the Deity is 
regarded as the author, not merely a part of nature. He becomes for 
the first time a really supernatural being. The last stage is that in 
which morality is associated with religion ( Lubbock: Origin of Civili¬ 
zation (1870), p. 119). 

Prof. Max Muller says that “though it is impossible to give a sat¬ 
isfactory etymology of either God or good, it is clear that two words 

19 









Come Unto Me. 
















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


21 


which thus run parallel in all the dialects without ever meeting cannot 
be traced back to one central point. God was most likely an old 
heathen name of the Deity, and for such a name the supposed etymo¬ 
logical meaning of good would be far too modern, too abstract, too 
Christian” (Max Muller: Science of Language , ii. (8th ed.) p. 316). 

In the Jewish theology, says another writer: 

Two leading names for the Supreme Being continually occur in 
the Hebrew Bible ; the one generic, the other specific. The generic 
term is El , or Eloah , both singular, and Elohim plural. The specific 
one is Yehovah , in general written Jehovah. It is of the first that God 
is the appropriate rendering. El, Eloah, and Elohim signify Deity in 
general. Elohim is much more common than the singular forms. An 
anomalous grammatical idiom is generally introduced where it occurs. 
While it has the plural form, im being the plural of Hebrew masculine 
nouns, the verb, of which it is nominative, is uniformly singular. Older 
writers found in this a reference to the Trinity in Unity; grammarians 
term it the plural of excellence, and some have supposed that the 
plural noun carries us back to the infancy of the Hebrew language 
when polytheism prevailed, and that the singular verb established 
itself when monotheism displaced the worship of many gods. Among 
the epithets or titles used of God in the Old Testament are Most High 
(Gen. xiv., 18, etc.), Mighty (Neh. ix., 32), Holy (Josh, xxiv., 19), Mer¬ 
ciful (Deut. iv., 31), God of Heaven (Ezra, v., 12), God of Israel, etc. 
(Exod. xxiv., 10). Anthropomorphic language occurs chiefly, though 
not exclusively, in the poetic parts of the Old Testament (2 Chron. 
xvi., 9; Psalm xxxiv., 15; Deut. viii., 3; Psalm xxix., 4; Isa. xl., 12; liii., 1; 
lx., 13; Exod. xxxii., 23), but monotheism is enjoined in the first com¬ 
mandment, and idolatry forbidden in the second, while in Isaiah and 
elsewhere there are most scathing denunciations of the manufacture 
and worship of images (Isa. xl., 12-26; xlii., 17; xliv., 9-20, etc.). In 
the New Testament, St. John gives the ever-memorable definition of 
the Divine nature, “ God is love,” (1 John iv., 16). The Latin Church, 
the Greek Church, and the several Protestant denominations all essen¬ 
tially agree in their tenets regarding God. See the Apostles’, Nicene, 
and Athanasian Creeds, the first of the Thirty-nine Articles, the Cate¬ 
chism of the Council of Trent, the Confession of Faith (ch. ii.), and 
the Shorter Catechism, Question 4. 

Following are arguments for the being of God from the Philo¬ 
sophical, Catholic, and Protestant standpoints: 




v 


. 





















The A r g um ent for the Divine B ein g- 


By HON. W. T. HARRIS, United States Commissioner of Education. 


HE first thinker who discovered an adequate 
proof of the existence of God was Plato. He 
devoted his life to thinking out the necessary 
conditions of independent being, or, in other 
words, the form of any wholeortotality of being 
Dependent being implies something else 
than itself as that on which it depends. It 
cannot be said to derive its being from another 
dependent or derivative being, because that has 
no being of its own to lend it. A whole series 
of connected dependent beings must derive 
their origin and present subsistence from an 
independent being—that is to say from what 
exists in and through itself and imparts its be¬ 
ing to others or derived beings. Hence the 
independent being, which is presupposed by the dependent being, is 
creative and active in the sense that it is self-determined and deter¬ 
mines others. 

Plato in most passages calls this presupposed independent being 
by the word idea ex sos or idea. He is sure that there are as many 
ideas as there are total beings in the universe. He reasons that there 
are two kinds of motion—that which is derived from some other mover 
and that which is derived from self; thus the self-moved and the 
moved-through-others includes all kinds of beings. But the moved- 
through-others presupposes the self-moved as the source of its own 
motion. Hence the explanation or all that exists or moves must be 
sought and found in the self-moved. (Tenth book of Plato’s laws.) 
In his dialogue named “The Sophist” he argues that ideas or inde¬ 
pendent beings must possess activity and, in short, be thinking or 
rational beings. 

This great discovery of the principle that there must be indepen¬ 
dent being if there is dependent being is the foundation of philosophy 
and also of theology. Admit that there may be a world of dependent 
beings, each one of which depends on another and no one of them nor 
all of them depend on an independent being, and at once philosophy 





24 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


is made impossible and theology deprived of its subject matter. But 
such admission would destroy thought itself. 

Let it be assumed, for the sake of considering where it would 
lead, that all existent beings are dependent; that no one possesses 
any other being than derived being. Then it follows that each one 
borrows its being from others that do not have any being to lend. 
Each and all are dependent and must first obtain being from another 
before they can lend it. If it is said that the series of dependent 
beings is such that the last depends upon the first again, so that there 
is a circle of dependent beings, then it has to be admitted that the 
whole circle is independent, and from this strange result follows that 
the independence of the whole circle of being is something transcend¬ 
ent—a negative unity creating and then annulling again the particu¬ 
lar beings forming the members of the series. 

This theory is illustrated in the doctrine of the correlation of 
forces. The action of force number one gives rise to force number 
two, and so on to the end. But this implies that the last of the series 
gives rise to the first one of the series, and the whole becomes a self- 
determined totality or independent being. Moreover, the persistent 
force is necessarily different from any one of the series—it is not heat 
nor light nor electricity nor gravitation, nor any other of the series, 
but the common ground of all, and hence not particularized like any 
one of them. It is the general force whose office it is to energize and 
produce the series—originating one force and annulling it again by 
causing it to pass into another. Thus the persistent force is not one 
of the series but transcends all of the particular forces—they are de¬ 
rivative; it is original, independent and transcendent. It demands as 
the next step of explanation the exhibition of the necessity of its 
production of just this series of particular forces as involved in the 
nature of the self-determined or absolute force It involves, too, the 
necessary conclusion that a self-determined force which originates all 
of its special determinations and cancels them all is a pure Ego or 
self-hood. 

For consciousness is the name given by us to that kind of being 
which can annul all of its determinations. For it can annul all ob¬ 
jective determination and have left only its own negative might while 
it descends creatively to particular thoughts, volitions or feelings. It 
can drop them instantly by turning its gaze upon its pure self as the 
creator of those determinations. This turn upon itself is accomplished 
by filling its objective field with negation or annulment—this is its 
own act and in it realizes its personal identity and its personal tran¬ 
scendence of limitations. 

Hence we may say that the doctrine of correlation of forces pre¬ 
supposes a personality creating and transcending the series of forces 
correlated. If the mind undertakes to suppose a total of dependent 
or derivative beings, it ends by reaching an independent, self-deter¬ 
mined being which, as pure subject, transcends its determinations as 
object and is therefore an Ego or person. 

Again, the insight which established this doctrine of independent 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


25 


beings or Platonic “ideas” is not fully satisfied when it traces depend¬ 
ent or derivative motion back to any intelligent being as its sourcej 
there is a further step possible, namely, from a world of many ideas to 
an absolute idea as the divine author of all. 

For time and space are of such a nature that all beings contained 
by them, namely, all extended and successive beings, are in necessary 
mutual dependence and hence in one unity. This unity of dependent 
beings in time and space demands a one transcendent being. Hence 
the doctrine of the idea of ideas—the doctrine of a divine being, who 
is rational and personal and who creates beings in time and space in 
order to share his fullness of being with a world of created beings— 
created for the special purpose of sharing his blessedness. 

This is the idea of the supreme goodness, and Plato comes upon 
it as the highest thought of his system. In the Timaeus he speaks of 
the absolute as being without envy, and therefore as making the world 
as another blessed God. 

In this Platonic system of thought we have the first authentic sur¬ 
vey of human reason. Human reason has two orders of knowing—one 
the knowing of dependent beings and the other the knowing of inde¬ 
pendent beings. The first is the order of knowing the senses, the sec¬ 
ond the order of knowing by logical presupposition. 1 know by see¬ 
ing, hearing, tasting, touching things and events. I know by seeing 
what these things and events logically imply or presuppose that there 
is a great first cause, a personal reason who reveals a gracious purpose 
by creating finite beings in time and space. 

This must be, or else human reason is at fault in its very founda¬ 
tions. This must be so or else it must be that there is dependent 
being which has nothing to depend on. Human reason, then, we may 
say from this insight of Plato, rests upon this knowledge of transcend¬ 
ental being—a being that transcends all determinations of extent and 
succession such as appertain to space and time, and therefore, that 
transcends both time and space. This transcendent being is perfect 
fullness of being, while the beings in time and space are partial or 
imperfect beings in the sense of being embryonic or undeveloped, 
being partially realized and partially potential. 

At this point the system of Aristotle can be understood in its har¬ 
mony with the Platonic system. Aristotle, too, holds explicitly that 
the beings in the world which derive motion from other beings pre¬ 
suppose a first mover. But he is careful to eschew the first expression 
self-moved as applying to the prime mover. God is Himself unmoved, 
but He is the origin of motion in others. This was doubtless the true 
thought of Plato, since he made the divine eternal and good. 

In his metaphysics (book eleventh, chapter seven) Aristotle un¬ 
folds his doctrine that dependent beings presuppose a divine being 
whose activity is pure knowing. He alone is perfectly realized—the 
school men call this technically “pure act”—all other being is partly 
potential, not having fully grown to its perfection. Aristotle's proof 
of the divine existence is substantially the same as that of Plato—an 



Solomon and Queen of Sheba 

















































































































































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


27 


ascent from the dependent being by the discovery of presuppositions 
to the perfect being who presupposes nothing else than the identifi¬ 
cation of the perfect or dependent being with thinking, personal, will¬ 
ing being. 

This concept of the divine being is wholly positive as far as it goes 
and nothing of it needs to be withdrawn after further philosophic 
reflection has discussed anew the logical presuppositions. More pre¬ 
suppositions may be discovered—new distinctions discerned where 
none were perceived before—but those additions only make more cer¬ 
tain the fundamental theory explained first by Plato and subsequently 
by Aristotle. This may be seen by a glance at the theory of Christianity, 
which unfolds itself in the minds of great thinkers of the first six cent¬ 
uries of our era. The object of Christian theologians was to give unity 
and system to the new doctrine of the divine-human nature of God 
taught by Christ. They discovered, one by one, the logical presuppo¬ 
sitions and announced them in the creed. 

The Greeks had seen the idea of the Logos or eternally begotten 
son, the word that was in the beginningand through which created be¬ 
ings arose in time and space. But how the finite and imperfect arose 
from the infinite and perfect the Greek did not understand so well as 
the Christian. 

The Hindu had given up the solution altogether and denied the 
problem itself. The perfect cannot be conceived as making the imper¬ 
fect—it is too absurd to think that a good being should make a bad 
being. Only Brahman the absolute exists and all else is illusion—it 
is Maya. 

H ow the illusion can exist is too much to explain. The Hindu 
has only postponed the problem, and not set it aside. His philosophy 
remains in that contradiction. The finite, including Brahma him¬ 
self, who philosophizes, is an illusion. An illusion recognizes itself as 
an illusion—an illusion knows true being and discriminates itself 
Horn false being. Such is the fundamental doctrine of the Sankhya 
philosophy, and the Sankhya is the fundamental type of all Hindu 
thought. 

The Greek escapes from this contradiction. He sees that the 
absolute cannot be empty, indeterminate, pure being devoid of all 
attributes, without consciousness. Plato and Aristotle see that the 
absolute must be pure form—that is to say, an activity which gives 
form to itself—a self-determined being with subject and object the 
same, hence a self-knowing and self-willed being. Hence the absolute 
cannot be an abstract unity like Brahma, but must be a self-deter¬ 
mined or a unity that gives rise to duality within itself and recovers 
its unity and restores it by recognizing itself in its object. 

The absolute as subject is the first—the absolute as object is the 
second It is Logos. God’s object must exist for all eternity, because 
He is always a person and conscious. But it is very important to 
recognize that the Logos, God’s object,is Himself, and hence equal to 
Himself, and also self-conscious. It is not the world in time and 


28 


THE RELIGIONS OF TIIE WORLD. 


space. To hold that God thinks Himself as the world is pantheism 
it is pantheism of the left wing of Hegelians. 

To say that God thinks Himself as the world is to say that He 
discovers in Himself finite and perishable forms, and therefore makes 
them objective. The schoolmen say truly that in God intellect and 
will are one. This means that in God his thinking makes objectively 
existent what it thinks. Plato saw clearly that the Logos is perfect and 
not a world of change and decay. He could not explain how the world 
of change and decay is derived except from the goodness of the divine 
being who imparts gratuitously of his fullness of being to a series of 
creatures who have being only in part. 

But the Christian thinking adds two new ideas to the two already 
found by Plato. It adds to the divine first and the second (the 
Logos), also a divine third, the holy spirit, and a fourth not divine, but 
the process of the third—calling it the processio. This idea of process 
explains the existence of a world of finite beings, for it contains 
evolution, development or derivation. And evolution implies the 
existence of degrees of less and more perfection of growth. The pro¬ 
cession thus must be in time, but the time process must have eternally 
gone on because the third has eternally proceeded and been pro¬ 
ceeding. 

The thought underneath this theory is evidently that the Second 
Person or Logos, in knowing Himself or in being conscious, knows 
Himself in two phases—first, as completely generated or perfect, and 
this is the Holy Spirit, and secondly, He knows Plimself as related to 
the First as his eternal origin. In thinking of His origin or genesis from 
the Father, He makes objective a complete world of evolution con¬ 
taining at all times all degrees of development or evolution and 
covering every degree of imperfection from pure space and time up to 
the invisible church. 

This recognition of His derivation is also a recognition on the part 
of the First of His own act of generating the Second—it is not going 
on, but has been eternally completed, and yet both the Divine First 
and the Divine Second must think it when they think of their relation 
to one another. Recognition is the intellectual of the First,and Sec¬ 
ond is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, and this mutual 
love is the procession of the Holy Spirit. 

But the procession is not a part of the holy trinity; it is the crea¬ 
tion in time and space of an infinite world of imperfect beings develop¬ 
ing into self-activity and as self-active organizing institutions—the 
family, civil society, the state and the church. The church is the New 
Jerusalem described by St. John, the apostle, who has revealed this 
doctrine of the third person as an institutional person—the spirit who 
makes possible all institutional organism in the world and who tran¬ 
scends them all as the perfect who energizes in the imperfect to 
develop it and complete it. 

Thus stated, the Christian thought as expressed in the symbol of 
the holy trinity, explains fully the relations of the world of imperfect 



THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


29 


beings and makes clear in what way the goodness or grace of God 
makes the world as Plato and Aristotle taught. 

The world is a manifestation of divine grace—a spectacle of the 
evolution or becoming of individual existence in all phases, inorganic 
and organic. Individuality begins to appear even in specific gravity 
and in ascending degrees in cohesion and crystallization. In the plant 
it is unmistakable. In the animal it begins to feel and perceive itself. 
In man it arrives at self-consciousness and moral action and recog 
nizes its own place in the universe. 

God, being without envy, does not grudge any good; He accord¬ 
ingly turns » as Rothe says, the emptiness of non-being into a reflection 
of Himself and makes it everywhere a spectacle of His grace. 

Of the famous proofs of divine existence, St. Anselm’s holds the 
first place. But St. Anselm’s proof cannot be understood without re¬ 
curring to the insight of Plato. In his Proslogium St. Anselm finds 
that there is but one thought which underlies all others; one thought 
universally presupposed, and this he describes as the thought of that 
than which there can be nothing greater—“Id quo nihil major cogi- 
tare potest.” Phis assuredly is Plato’s thought of the totality. Every¬ 
thing not a total is less than the totality. But the totality is the 
greatest possible being. 

The essential thing to notice, however, is that St. Anselm per¬ 
ceives that this one thought is objectively valid and not a mere sub¬ 
jective notion of the thinker. No thinker can doubt that there is a 
totality—he can be perfectly sure that the plus the not-me includes all 
that there is. Gaunillo, in the lifetime of St. Anselm, and Kant, in re¬ 
cent times,have tried to refute the argument by alleging the general 
proposition—the conception of a thing does not imply its corre¬ 
sponding existence. The proposition is true, except in the case of this 
one ontological thought of the totality of the thoughts that can be log¬ 
ically deduced from it. The second order of knowing, by presump¬ 
tions, implies an existence corresponding to each concept. St. Anselm 
knew that the person who denied the objective validity of this idea of 
the totality must presuppose its truth right in the very act of denying 
it. If there be an Ego that thinks, even if it be the Ego of a fool 
(insipiens), who says in his heart, “there is no God,” it must be cer¬ 
tain that its self plus its not-self makes a totality, and that this totality 
surely exists. The existence of his Ego is or may be contingent, but 
the totality is certainly not contingent but necessary. This is an onto¬ 
logical necessity and the basis of all further philosophical and theolog¬ 
ical thoughts. 

St. Anselm does not, it is true, follow out this thought to its con¬ 
templation in his Proslogium nor in his Monologium. He leaves it 
there with the idea of a necessary being who is supreme and perfect 
because he contains the fullness of being. 

He undoubtedly saw the further implication, namely, that the 
totality is an independent being and self-existent because it is self¬ 
active- He saw this so clearly that he did not think it worth while to 


% 



Christ at Mary and Martha’s 


































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


31 


stop and unfold it. But he did speak of it as a necessary existence 
contrasted with a contingent existence. “Everywhere else besides 
God,’* he says, “can be conceived not to exist.” 

Descartes, in his Third Meditation, has repeated with some modi¬ 
fication the demonstration of St. Anselm. He holds, in substance, that 
the idea of a perfect being is not subjective, but objective; we see that 
he is dealing with the necessary objectivity of the idea of totality. The 
expression “perfect being” is entirely misunderstood by most writers 
in the history of philosophy; it must be taken only in the sense of in¬ 
dependent being—being for itself—being that can be what it is with¬ 
out support from another—hence perfectly self-determined being. 
The expression “perfect” points directly to Aristotle’s invented word, 
entelechy, whose literal meaning is the having of perfection itself. The 
word is invented to express the thought of the independent presup¬ 
posed by dependent being. 

Perfect being, as Aristotle teaches, is pure energy; all of his poten¬ 
tialities are realized; hence it is not subject to change nor is it passive 
or recipient of anything from without—it is pure form, or rather self- 
formative. Read in the light of Plato’s idea and Aristotle’s entelechy, 
St. Anselm and Descartes’ proofs are clear and intelligible, and are not 
touched by Kant’s criticism. In his philosophy of religion and else¬ 
where, Hegel has pointed out the source of Kant’s misapprehension. 
Gaunillo instanced the island Atlantis as a conception which does not 
imply a corresponding reality. Kant instanced a hundred dollars as a 
conception which did not imply a corresponding reality in his pocket. 
But neither the island Atlantis, nor any other island, neither a hundred 
dollars—in short, no finite dependent being is at all a necessary being, 
and hence cannot be deduced from its concept. But each and every 
contingent being presupposes the existence of an independent being 
—a self-determined being—an absolute divine reason. 

St. Anselm proved the depth of his thought by advancing a new 
theory of the death of Christ as a satisfaction, not of the claims of the 
devil, but as the satisfaction of the claims of God’s justice for sin. Al¬ 
though we do not trace out his full thought in the Proslogium we can 
see the depth and clearness of his thinking in this new theory of atone¬ 
ment. Bor, in order to understand it philosophically, the thinker must 
make clear to himself the logical necessity for the exclusion of all 
forms of finitude or dependent being from the thought of the divine 
reason who knows Himself in the Logos. To think an imperfection is 
to annul it; hence God’s thought of an imperfect being annuls it. 
This logical statement corresponds to the political definition of the 
idea of justice. 

Justice gives to a being its dues; it completes it by adding to it 
what it lacks. Add to an imperfect being what it lacks and you 
destroy its individuality. This is justice instead of grace. Grace bears 
with the imperfect being until it completes itself by its own act of 
self-determination. But, in order that a world of imperfect beings, 
sinners, may have this field of probation, a perfect being must bear 


32 


THE RELIG/uNS OF THE WORLD. 


then imperfection. The divine Logos must harbor in His thought all 
the stages of genesis or becoming, and thereby endowed beings in a 
finite world with reality and self-existence. Thus the conception of 
St. Anselm was a deep and true insight. 

The older view of Christ’s atonement as a ransom paid to Satan is 
not so irrational as it seems, if we divest it of the personification which 
figures the negative as a co-ordinate person with God. God only is 
absolute person. His pure not-me is chaos, but not a personal devil. 
In order that God’s grace shall have the highest possible manifesta¬ 
tion, He turns His not-me into a reflection of Himself by making it a 
series of ascending stages out of dependence and nonentity into inde¬ 
pendence and personal individuality. But the process of reflection by 
creation in time and space involves God’s tenderness and long suffer¬ 
ing; it involves a real sacrifice in the Divine Being, for He must hold 
and sustain in existence by His creative thought the various stages of 
organic beings—plants and animals are mere caricatures of the divine 
—then it must support and nourish humanity in its wickedness and 
sin—a deeper alienation than even that of minerals, plants and animals, 
because it is a willful alienation of a higher order of beings. 

Self-sacrificing love is, therefore, the concept of the atonement; it 
is, in fact, the true concept of the divine gift of being of finite things; 
it is not merely religion, it is philosophy or necessary tru-th. But it is 
very important so to conceive nature as not to attach it to the idea of 
God by them in Himself; such an idea is pantheism. Nature does not 
form a person of the Trinity. It is not the Logos, as supposed by the 
left wing of the Hegelians. And yet on the other hand nature is not 
an accident in God’s purposes as conceived by theologians, who react 
too far from the pantheistic view. Nature is eternal, but not self-ex¬ 
istent; it is the procession of the Holy Spirit and arises in the double 
thought of the First Person and the Logos, or the timeless generation 
which is logically involved in the fact of God’s consciousness of Him¬ 
self as eternal reason. 

The thought of God is a regressive thought—it is an ascent from 
the dependent to that on which it depends. It is called dialectical by 
Plato in the sixth Book of the Republic. “The Dialectic Method,’’ 
says he, “ascends from what has a mere contingent or hypothetic 
existence to the first principle by proving the insufficiency of all except 
the first principle.” 

This is the second order of knowing—the discovery of the onto¬ 
logical presuppositions. The first order of knowing sees things and 
events by the aid of the senses, the second order of knowing sees the 
first cause. The first order of knowing attains to a knowledge of the 
perishable, the second order attains to the imperishable. The idea of 
God is, as Kant has explained, the supreme directive or regulative idea 
in the mind. It is, moreover, as Plato and St. Anselm saw, the most 
certain of all our ideas, the light in all our seeing. 


JV\oral Evidence of a J^jivine Existence. 

Paper by REV. ALFRED W. MOMERIE, of London, England. 


E evidences for the existence of God may be 
summed up under two heads. First of all there 
is what I will designate the rationality of the 
world. Under this head, of course, comes the 
old argument from design. It is often sup¬ 
posed that the argument from design has been 
exploded. “Nowadays,” says Comte, “the 
heavens declare no other glory than that of 
Hipparchus, Newton, Kepler and the rest who 
have found out the laws of their sequence. 
Our power of foreseeing phenomena and our 
power of controlling them destroy the belief 
that they are governed by changeable wills.” 
Quite so. But such a belief—the belief, viz., 
that phenomena were governed by change¬ 
able wills—could not be entertained by any 
really irregular phenomenon, as Mr. Fiske 
has said, would be a manifestation of sheer diabolism. Philosophical 
theism—belief in a being deservedly called God—could not be estab¬ 
lished until after the uniformity of nature had been discovered. We 
must cease to believe in many changeable wills before we can begin 
to believe in one that is unchangeable. We must cease to believe in 
a finite God, outside of nature, who capriciously interferes with her 
phenomena, before we can begin to believe in an infinite God, imma¬ 
nent in-nature, of whom mind and will and all natural phenomena are 
the various but never varying expressions. Though the regularity of 
nature is not enough by itself to prove the existence of God, the irreg¬ 
ularity of nature would be amply sufficient to disprove it. The 
uniformity of nature, which, by a curious observation of the logical 
faculties, has been used as an atheistic argument, is actually the first 
step in the proof of the existence of God. The purposes of a reason¬ 
able being, just in proportion to his reasonableness, will be steadfast 
and immovable. And in God there is no change, neither shadow of 
turning. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. 

3 33 





CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES.—Muller 












THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


35 


There is another scientific doctrine, viz., the doctrine of evolution, 
which is often supposed to be incompatible with the argument from 
design. But it seems to me that the discovery of the fact of evolution 
was an important step in the proof of the divine existence. Evolution 
has not disproved adaptation; it has merely disproved one particular 
kind of adaptation, the adaptation, viz., of a human artifice. In the 
time of Paley God was regarded as a great Mechanician, spelled with 
a capital M, it is true, but employing means and methods for the 
accomplishment of His purposes more or less similar to those which 
would be used by a human workman. It was believed that every 
species, every organism and every part of every organism had been 
individually adapted by the Creator for the accomplishment of a defi¬ 
nite end, just as every portion of a watch is the result of a particular 
act of contrivance on the part of the watchmaker. 

A different and far higher method is suggested by the doctrine of 
evolution, a doctrine which may now be considered as practically 
demonstrated, thanks especially to the light which has been shed on it 
by the sciences of anatomy, physiology, geology, paleontology and 
embryology. These sciences have placed the blood relationship of 
species beyond a doubt. The embryos of existing animals are found 
again and again to bear the closest resemblance to extinct species, 
though in the adult form the resemblance is obscured. Moreover, we 
frequently find in animals rudimentary, or abortive, organs, which are 
manifestly not adapted to any end, which never can be of any use, and 
whose presence in the organism is sometimes positively injurious. 
There are snakes that have rudimentary legs—legs which, however 
interesting to the anatomist, are useless to the snake. There are rudi¬ 
ments of fingers in a horse’s hoof and of teeth in a whale’s mouth, and 
in man himself there is the vermiform appendix. It is manifest, there¬ 
fore, that any particular organ in one species is merely an evolution 
from a somewhat different kind of organ in another. It is manifest 
that the species themselves are but transmutations of one or a few 
primordial types, and that they have been created not by paroxysm 
but by evolution. The Creator saw the end from the beginning. He 
had not many conflicting purposes, but one that was general and all¬ 
-embracing. Unity and continuity of design serve to demonstrate the 
wisdom of the designer. 

The supposition that nature means something by what she does 
has not infrequently led to important scientific discoveries. It was in 
this way that Harvey found out the circulation of the blood. He took 
' notice of the valves in the veins in many parts of the body, so placed 
as to give free passage to the blood toward the heart, but opposing 
its passage in the contrary direction. Then he bethought himself, to 
use his own words, “that such a provident cause as nature had not 
placed so many valves without a design, and the design which seemed 
most probable was that the blood, instead of being sent by these veins 
to the limbs, should go first through the arteries, should return through 
other veins whose valves did not oppose its course. * Thus, apart from 


36 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the supposition of purpose, the greatest discovery in physiological 
science might not have been made. And the curious thing is a cir¬ 
cumstance to which I would particularly direct your attention the 
word purpose is constantly employed even by those who are most 
strenuous in denying the reality of the fact. The supposition of pur¬ 
pose is used as a working hypothesis by the most extreme materialists. 
The recognition of an immanent purpose in our conception of nature 
can be so little dispensed with that we find it admitted even by Vogt. 
Haeckel, in the very book in which he says that “the.much talked-of 
purpose in nature has no existence,” defines an organic body as “one 
in which the various parts work together for the purpose of producing 
the phenomenon of life.” And Hartmann, according to whom the 
universe is the outcome of unconsciousness, speaks of “the wisdom of 
the unconscious,” of “the mechanical contrivances which it employs,” 
of “the direct activity in bringing about complete adaptation to the 
peculiar nature of the case,” of “its incursions into the human brain 
which determine the course of history in all departments of civiliza¬ 
tion in the direction of the goal intended by the unconscious.” Pur¬ 
pose, then, has not been eliminated from the universe by the discover¬ 
ies of physical science. These discoveries have but intensified and 
elevated our path. 

And there is yet something else to be urged in favor of the argu¬ 
ment from design. If the world is not due to purpose it must be the 
result of chance. This alternative cannot be avoided by asserting that 
the world is the outcome of law; since law itself must be accounted for 
in one or other of these alternative ways. A law of nature explains 
nothing. It is merely a summary of the facts to be explained; 
merely a statement of the way in which things,, happen, e. g ., the law 
of gravitation in the fact that all material bodies attract one another 
with a force varying directly as their mass and inversely as the 
squares of their distances. Now, the fact that bodies attract one 
another in this way cannot be explained by the law, for the law is 
nothing but the precise expression of the fact. To say that the gravi¬ 
tation of matter is accounted for by the law of gravitation is merely to 
say that matter gravitates because it gravitates. And so of the other 
laws of nature. Taken together they are simply the expression, in a 
set of convenient formulae, of all the facts of our experience. The 
laws of nature are the facts of nature summarized. To say, then, that 
nature is explained by law is to say that the facts are explained by 
themselves. The question remains, Why are the facts what they are? 
And to this question we can only answer, Either through purpose or 
by chance. 

In favor of the latter hypothesis it may be urged that the appear¬ 
ance of purpose in nature could have been produced by chance. Ar¬ 
rangements which look intentional may sometimes be purely accidental. 
Something was bound to come of the play of the primeval atoms. 
Why not the particular world in which we find ourselves? 

Why not? For this reason: It is only within narrow bounds that 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


37 


seemingly purposeful arrangements are accidentally produced. And, 
therefore, as the signs of purpose increase the presumption in favor of 
their accidental origin diminishes. It is the most curious phenomenon 
in the history of thought that the philosophers who delight in calling 
themselves experienced should have countenanced the theory of the 
accidental origin of the world, a theory with which our experience, as 
far. as it goes, is completely out of harmony. When only eleven 
planets were known De Morgan showed that the odds against their 
moving in one direction around the sun with a slight inclination of the 
planes of their orbits—had chance determined the movement—would 
have been twenty billions to one. And this movement of the planets 
is but a single item, a tiny detail, an infinitesimal fraction in a universe 
which, notwithstanding all arguments to the contrary, still appears to 
be pervaded through and through with purpose. Let every human 
being now alive upon the earth spend the rest of his days and nights 
writing down arithmetical figures; let the enormous numbers which 
these figures would represent—each number forming a library in itself 
—be all added together; let this result be squared, cubed, multiplied by 
itself ten thousand times, and the final product would fall short of ex- 
pressingthe probabilities of the world having been evolved by chance. 

But over and above the signs of purpose in the world there are 
other evidences which bear witness to its rationality, to its ultimate 
dependence upon mind. We can often detect thought even when we 
fail to detect purpose. “Science,” says Lange, “starts from the prin¬ 
ciple of the intelligibleness of nature.” To interpret is to explain, 
and nothing can be explained that is not in itself rational. Reason 
can only grasp what is reasonable. You cannot explain the conduct 
of a fool. You cannot interpret the actions of a lunatic. They are 
contradictory, meaningless, unintelligible. Similarly, if nature were an 
irrational system there would be no possibility of knowledge. The 
interpretation of nature consists in making our own the thoughts 
which nature implies. Scientific hypothesis consists in guessing at 
these thoughts; scientific verification in proving that we have guessed 
aright. “ O, God,” says Kepler, when he discovered the laws of plan¬ 
etary motion, “O, God, I think again Thy thoughts after Thee.” There 
could be no course of nature, no law of sequence, no possibility of 
scientific predictions, in a senseless play of atoms. But, as it is, we 
know exactly how the forces of nature act and how they will continue 
to act. We can express their mode of working in the most precise 
mathematical formulae. Every fresh discovery in science reveals anew 
the order, the law, the system; in a word, the reason which underlies 
material phenomena. And reason is the outcome of mind. It is mind 
in action. 

Nor is it only within the realm of science that we can detect traces 
of a supreme intelligence. Kant and Hegel have shown that the 
whole of our conscious experience implies the existence of a mind 
other than but similar to our own. For students of philosophy it is 
needless to explain this; for others it would be impossible within the 



Mt. Lebanon and Cedars 






THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


39 


short time at my disposal. Suffice it to say, it has been proved that 
what we call knowledge, is due subjectively to the constructive activity 
of our own individual minds, and objectively to the constructive 
activity of another mind which is omnipresent and eternal. In other 
words, it has been proved that our limited consciousness implies the 
existence of a consciousness that is unlimited, that the common every¬ 
day experience of each one of us necessitates the increasing activity 
of an infinite thinker. 

The world, then, is essentially rational. But if that w 7 ere all we 
could say we should be very far from having proved the existence of 
God. A question still remains for us to answer: Is the infinite 
thinker good? I pass on, therefore, to speak briefly on the second 
part of my subject, viz., the progressiveness of the world. The last, 
the most comprehensive, the most certain word of science is evolution. 
And it is the most hopeful word I know. For when we contemplate 
the suffering and disaster around us, we are sometimes tempted to 
think that the Great Contriver is indifferent to human welfare. But 
evolution, which is only another form for continuous improvement, 
inspires us with confidence. It suggests, indeed, that the Creator is 
not omnipotent, in the vulgar sense of being able to do impossibilities; 
but it also suggests that the difficulties of creation are being surely 
though slowly overcome. 

Now, it may be asked, How could there be difficulties for God? 
How could the infinite be limited or restrained ? Let us see. We are too 
apt to look upon restraint as essentially an evil; to regard it as a sign 
of weakness. This is the greatest mistake. Restraint may be an evidence 
of power, of superiority, of perfection. Why is poetry so much more 
beautiful than prose? Because of the restraints of conscience. Many 
things are possible for a prose writer which are impossible for a poet; 
many things are possible for a villain which are impossible for a man 
of honor; many things are possible for a devil which are impossible 
for a God. The fact is, infinite wisdom and goodness involve nothing 
less than infinite restraint. When we say that God cannot do wrong 
we virtually admit that He is under a moral obligation or necessity, 
and reflection will show that there is another kind of necessity, viz., 
mathematical, by which even the infinite is bound. 

Do you suppose that the Deity could make a square with only 
three sides or a line with only one end? Admitting, for the sake of 
argument, that theoretically He had the power, do you suppose that 
under any conceivable circumstances He would use it? Surely not. 
It would be prostitution. It would be the employment of an infinite 
power for the production of what was essentially irrational and absurd. 
It would be the same kind of folly as if some one who was capable of 
writing a sensible book were deliberately to produce a volume with the 
words so arranged as to convey no earthly meaning. The same kind 
of folly but far more culpable, for the guilt of foolishness increases in 
proportion to the capacity for wisdom. A being, therefore, who 
attempted to reverse the truth of mathematics would not be divine. 
To mathematical necessity Deity itself must yield. 



House of Pontius Pilate, Jerusalem. 






THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


41 


Similarly in the physical sphere there must be restraints equally 
necessary and equally unalterable, viz., it may be safely and reverently 
affirmed that God could not have created a painless world. The Deity 
must have been constrained by His goodness to create the best world 
possible, and a world without suffering would have been not better, but 
worse than our own. For consider, sometimes pain is needed as a 
warning to preserve us from greater pain; to keep us from destruc¬ 
tion. If pain had not been attached to injurious actions and habits, all 
sentient beings would long ago have passed out of existence. Sup¬ 
pose, e. that fire did not cause pain, we might easily be burnt to 
death before we knew we were in danger. Suppose the loss of health 
vvere not attended with discomfort, we should lack the strongest mo¬ 
tive for preserving it. And the same is true of the pangs of remorse 
which follow what we call sin. Further, pain is necessary for the 
development of character, especially in its higher phases. In some 
way or other, though, we cannot tell exactly how, pain acts as an intel¬ 
lectual and spiritual stimulus. The world’s greatest teachers, Dante, 
Shakespeare, Darwin, etc., have' been men who suffered much. Suffer¬ 
ing, moreover, develops in us pity, mercy, and the spirit of self-sacri¬ 
fice; it develops in us self-respect, self-reliance and all that is implied 
in the expression, strength of character. In no other way could such 
a character be conceivably acquired. It could not have been bestowed 
upon us by a creative fiat; it is essentially the result of personal con¬ 
flict. Even Christ became perfect through suffering. And there is 
also a further necessity for pain arising from the reign of law. 

There is, no doubt, something awesome in the thought of the abso¬ 
lute inviolability of law; in the thought that nature goes on her way 
quite regardless of your wishes or mine. She is so strong and so indif¬ 
ferent! The reign of law often entails on individuals the direst suffer¬ 
ing. But if the Deity interfered with it He would at once convert the 
universe into chaos. The first requisite for a rational life is the certain 
knowledge that the same effects will always follow from the same 
cause; that they will never be miraculously averted; that they will 
never be miraculously produced. It seems hard—it is hard—that a 
mother should lose her darling child by accident or disease, that 
she cannot by any agony of prayer recall the child to life. But 
it would be harder for the world if she could. The child has 
died through a violation of some of nature’s laws, and if such viola¬ 
tion were unattended with death men would lose the great induce¬ 
ment to discover and obey them. It seems hard—it is hard—that the 
man who has taken poison by accident dies, as surely as if he had taken 
it on purpose. But it would be harder for the world if he did not. If 
one act of carelessness were ever overlooked, the race would cease to 
feel the necessity for care. It seems hard—it is hard—that children 
are made to suffer for their father’s crimes. But it would be harder 
for the world if they were not. If the penalties of wrong doing were 
averted from the children, the fathers would lose the best incentive to 
do right. Vicarious suffering has a great part to play in the moral 


42 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


development of the world. Each individual is apt to think that an 
exception might be made in his favor. But of course that could not 
be. If the laws of nature were broken for one person, justice would 
require that they should be broken for thousands, for all. And if only 
one of nature’s laws could be proved to have been only once violated, 
our faith in law would be at an end; we should feel that we were liv¬ 
ing in a disorderly universe; we should lose the sense of the para¬ 
mount importance of conduct; we should know that we were the sport 
of chance. 

Pain, therefore, was an unavoidable necessity in the creation of 
the best of all possible worlds. But, however many and however great 
were the difficulties in the Creator’s path, the fact of evolution makes 
it certain that they are being gradually overcome. And among all the 
changes that have marked its progress, none is so palpable, so remark¬ 
able, so persistent as the development of goodness. Evolution “makes 
for righteousness.” That which seems to be its end varies. 

The truth is constantly becoming more apparent that on the whole 
and in the long-run it is not well with the wicked; that sooner or later, 
both in the lives of individuals and of nations, good triumphs over 
evil. And this tendency toward righteousness, by which we find our¬ 
selves encompassed, meets with a ready, an ever readier response in 
our own hearts. We cannot help respecting goodness, and we have 
inextinguishable longings for its personal attainment. Notwithstand¬ 
ing “sore lets and hindrances,” notwithstanding the fiercest tempta¬ 
tions, notwithstanding the most disastrous failures, these yearnings 
continually reassert themselves with ever increasing force. We feel, 
we know that we shall always be dissatisfied and unhappy until the 
tendency within us is brought into perfect unison with the tendency 
without us, until we also make for righteousness steadily, unremit¬ 
tingly and with our whole heart. What is this disquietude, what are 
these yearnings but the spirit of the universe in communion with our 
spirits, inspiring us, impelling us, all but forcing us to become co- 
workers with itself. 

To sum up in one sentence—all knowledge, whether practical or 
scientific, nay, the commonest experience of everyday life, implies the 
existence of a mind which is omnipresent and eternal, while the tend¬ 
ency toward righteousness, which is so unmistakably manifest in the 
course of history, together with the response which this tendency 
awakens in our own hearts, combine to prove that the infinite thinker 
is just and kind and good. It must be because he is always with us 
that we sometimes imagine that he is nowhere to be found. 

“Oh, where is the sea?” the fishes cried 
As they swam the crystal clearness through; 

“We’ve heard from of old of the ocean’s tide 
And we long to look on the waters blue. 

The wise ones speak of an infinite sea; 

Oh, who can tell us if such there be?” 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


43 


The lark flew up in the morning bright 
And sang and balanced on sunny wings, 
And this was its song: “I see the light; 

I look on a world of beautiful things; 
And flying and singing everywhere 
In vain have I sought to find the air." 



* 




Very Rev. Augustine F. Hewitt, C. S. P., New York. 






f\ational demonstration of the 3 e ‘ n § of 

God. 

By VERY REV. AUGUSTINE F. HEWITT, C. S. P., of New York. 


N honorable and arduous task has been assigned 
me. It is to address this numerous and dis¬ 
tinguished assembly on a topic taken from 
the highest branch of special metaphysics. 
The thesis of my discourse is the “Rational 
Demonstration of the Being of God,” as pre¬ 
sented in Catholic philosophy. This is a 
topic of the highest importance and of the 
deepest interest to all who are truly rational, 
who think and who desire to know their 
destiny and to fulfill it. The minds of men 
always and everywhere, in so far as they 
have thought at all, have been deeply interested in 
all questions relating to the divine order and its 
relations to nature and humanity 

The idea of a divine principle and power, superior to 
rr i sensible phenomena, above the changeable world and its 
short-lived inhabitants, is as old and as extensive as the human race 
Among vast numbers of the most enlightened part of mankind it has 
existed and held sway in the form of pure monotheism, and even 
among those who have deviated from this original religion of our first 
ancestors the divine idea has never been entirely effaced and lost. In 
our own surrounding world and for all classes of men differing in 
creed and opinion who may be represented in this audience, this theme 
is of paramount interest and import. 

Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and philosophical theists are 
agreed in professing monotheism as their fundamental and cardinal 
doctrine. Even unbelievers and doubters show an interest in discuss¬ 
ing and endeavoring to decide the question whether God does or does 
not exist. It is to be hoped that many of them regard their skepti¬ 
cism rather as a darkening cloud over the face of nature than as a light 
clearing away the mists of error; that they would gladly be convinced 

45 







46 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


that God does exist and govern a world which He has made. I may, 
therefore, hope for a welcome reception to my thesis in this audience. 

I have said that it is a thesis taken from the special metaphysics 
of Catholic philosophy. I must explain at the outset in what sense 
the term Catholic philosophy is used* It does not denote a system 
derived from the Christian revelation and imposed by the authority of 
the Catholic church, it signifies only that rational scheme which is 
received and taught in the Catholic schools as a science proceeding 
from its own proper principles by its own methods, and not a subal¬ 
tern science to dogmatic theology It has been adopted in great part 
from Aristotle and Plato and does not disdain to borrow from any pure 
fountain or stream of rational truth. The topic before us is, therefore, 
to be treated in a metaphysical manner on a ground where all who pro¬ 
fess philosophy can meet and where reason is the only authority which 
can be appealed to as umpire and judge. All who profess to be stu¬ 
dents of philosophy thereby proclaim their conviction that metaphysics 
is a true science by which certain knowledge can be obtained. 

Metaphysics, in its most general sense, is ontology, i. e., discourse 
concerning being in its first and universal principles. Being in all its 
latitude, in its total extension and comprehension, is the adequate 
object of intellect, taking intellect in its absolute essence,, excluding 
all limitations. It is the object of the human intellect in so far as this 
limited intellectual faculty is proportioned to it and capable of appre¬ 
hending it. Metaphysics seeks for a knowledge of all things which 
are within the ken of human faculties in their deepest causes. It in¬ 
vestigates their reason of being, their ultimate, efficient and final 
causes. The rational argument for the existence of God, guided by 
the principles of the sufficient reason and efficient causality, begins 
from contingent facts and events in the world and traces the chain of 
causation to the first cause. It demonstrates that God is, and it pro¬ 
ceeds, by analysis and synthesis, by induction from all the first princi¬ 
ples possessed by reason, from all the vestiges, reflections and images 
of God in the creation, to determine what God is, His essence andHis 
perfections. 

Let us then begin our argument from the first principle that 
everything that has any kind of being, that is, which presents itself as 
a thinkable, knowable or real object to the intellect, has a sufficient 
reason of being. The possible has a sufficient reason of its possibility. 
There is in it an intelligible ratio which makes it thinkable; without 
this it is unthinkable, inconceivable, utterly impossible; as, for 
instance, a circle, the points in whose circumference are of unequal 
distances from the center. The real has a sufficient reason for its real 
existence. If it is contingent, indifferent to non-existence or existence, 
it has not its sufficient reason of being in its essence. It must have it, 
then, from something outside of itself, that is, from an efficient cause. 

All the beings with which we are acquainted in the sensible world 
around us are contingent. They exist in determinate, specific, actual, 
individual forms and modes. They are in definite times and places. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


47 


They have their proper substantial and accidental attributes; they have 
qualities and relations, active powers and passive potencies. They do 
not exist by any necessary reason of being; they have become what 
they are. They are subject to many changes even in their smallest 
molecules and in the combinations and movements of their atoms. 
This changeableness is the mark of their contingency, the result of 
that potentiality in them, which is not of itself in act, but is brought 
into act by some moving force. They are in act, that is, have actual 
being, inasmuch as they have a specific and individual reality. But 
they are never, in anyone instant, in act to the whole extent of their 
capacity. There is a dormant potency of further actuation always in 
their actual essence. Moreover, there is no necessity in their essence 
for existing at all. The pure, ideal essence of things is, in itself, only 
possible. Their successive changes of existence are so many move¬ 
ments of transition from mere passing potency into act under the im¬ 
pulse of moving principles of force. And their very first act of exist¬ 
ence is by a motion of transition from mere possibility into actuality. 
The whole multitude of things which become, of events which happen, 
the total sum of the movements and changes of contingent beings, 
taken collectively and taken singly, must have a sufficient reason of 
being in some extrinsic principle, some efficient cause. 

The admirable order which rules over this multitude, reducing it 
to the unity of the universe is a display of efficient causality on a most 
stupendous scale. There is a correlation and conservation of force 
acting on the inert' and passive matter, according to fixed laws, in 
harmony with a definite plan and producing most wonderful results. 
Let us take our solar system as a specimen of the whole universe of 
bodies moving in space. According to the generally received and 
highly probable nebular theory, it has been evolved from a nebulous 
mass permeated by forces in violent action. The best chemists affirm 
by common consent that both the matter and the force are fixed 
quantities. No force and no matter ever disappears, no new force or 
matter ever appears. The nebulous mass and the motive force acting 
within it are definite quantities, having a definite location in space, at 
definite distances from other nebulas. The atoms and molecules are 
combined in the definite forms of the various elementary bodies in 
definite proportions. The movements of rotation are in certain direc¬ 
tions, condensation and incandescence take place under fixed laws, 
and all these movements are co-ordinated and directed to a certain 
result, viz., the formation of a sun and planets. 

Now, there is nothing in the nature of matter and force which 
determines it to take on just these actual conditions and no others. 
By their intrinsic essence they could just as well have existed in greater 
or lesser quantities in the solar nebula. The proportions of hydro¬ 
gen, oxygen and other substances might have been different. The 
movements of rotation might have been in a contrary direction. 
The process of evolution might have begun sooner and attained its 
finality ere now, or it might be beginning at the present moment. The 



AN EVENING IN NAZARETH.—Paul Leroy. 
















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


49 


marks of contingency are plainly to be discerned in the passive and 
active elements of the inchoate world as it emerges into the consist¬ 
ency and stable equilibrium of a solar system from primitive chaos. 

Equally obvious is the presence of a determining principle, 
acting as an irresistible law, regulatingthe transmission of force, along 
definite lines and in an'harmonious order. .The active forces at work in 
nature, giving motion to matter, only transmit a movement which 
they have received; they do not originate. It makes no difference 
how far back the series of effects and causes may be traced, natural 
forces remain always secondary causes, with no tendency to become 
primary principles; they demand some anterior, sufficient reason of 
their being, some original, primary principle from which they derive 
the force which they receive and transmit. They*demand a first 
cause. 

In the case of a long train of cars in motion, if we ask what moves 
the last car, the answer may be the car next before it, and so on until 
we reach the other end; but we have as yet only motion received and 
transmitted, and no sufficient reason for the initiation of the move¬ 
ment by an adequate efficient cause. Prolong the series to an indefi¬ 
nite length and you get no nearer to an adequate cause of the motion; 
you get no moving principle which possesses motive power in itself; 
the need of such a motive force, however, continually increases. There 
is more force necessary to impart motion to the whole collection of 
cars than for one or a few. If you choose to imagine that the series of 
cars is infinite you have only augmented the effect produced to infinity 
without finding a cause for it. You have made a supposition which 
imperatively demands the further supposition of an original principle 
and source of motion, which has an infinite power. The cars 
singly and collectively can only receive and transmit motion. Their 
passive potency of being moved, which is all they have in themselves, 
would never make them Tir out of their motionless rest. There must 
be a locomotive with the motive power applied and acting, and a con¬ 
nection of the cars with this locomotive, in order that the train may be 
propelled along its tracks. 

The series of movements given and received in the evolution of 
the world from primitive chaos is like this long chain of cars. The 
question, how did they come about, what is their efficient cause, starts 
up and confronts the mind at every stage of the process. You may 
trace back consequents to their antecedents, and show how the things 
which come after were virtually contained in those which came before. 
The present earth came from the paleozoic earth, and that from the 
azoic, and so on, until you come to the primitive nebula from which 
the solar system was constructed. 

But how did this vast mass of matter, and the mighty forces act¬ 
ing upon it, come to be started on their course of evolution, their 
movement in the direction of that result which we see to have been 
accomplished? It is necessary to go back to a first cause, a first mover, 
an original principle of all transition from mere potency into act, a 

4 


50 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


being, self-existing, whose essence is pure act and the source of all 
actuality. The only alternative is to fall back on the doctrine of 
chance, an absurdity long since exploded and abandoned, a renuncia¬ 
tion of all reason and an abjuration of the rational nature of man. 

Together with the question “ How” and the inquiry after efficient 
causes of movements and changes in the world, the question “Why” 
also perpetually suggests itself. This is an inquiry into another class 
of the deepest causes of things, viz., final causes. Final cause is the 
same as the end, the design, the purpose toward which movements, 
changes, the operation of active forces, efficient causes, are directed, 
and which are accomplished by their agency. 

Here the question arises, how the end attained as an effect of 
efficient causality can be properly named as a cause. How can it 
exert a causative influence, retroactively, on the means and agencies 
by which it is produced? It is last in the series and does not exist at 
the beginning or during the progress of the events whose final term it 
is. Nothing can act before it exists or give existence to itself. Final 
cause does not, therefore, act physically like efficient causes. It is a 
cause of the movements which precede its real and physical existence, 
only inasmuch as it has an ideal pre-existence in the foresight and 
intention of an intelligent mind. Regard a masterpiece of art. It is 
because the artist conceived the idea realized in this piece of work 
that he employed all the means necessary to the fulfillment of his 
desired end. This finished work is, therefore, the final cause, the 
motive of the whole series of operations performed by the artist or 
his workmen. 

The multitude of causes and effects in the world, reduced to an 
admirable harmony and unity, constitutes the order of the universe. 
In this order there is a multifarious arrangement and co-ordination of 
means to ends, denoting design and purpose, the intention and art of 
a supreme architect and builder, who impresses his ideas upon what 
we may call the raw material out of which he forms and fashions the 
worlds which move in space, and their various innumerable contents. 
From these final causes, as ideas and types according to which all 
movements of efficient causality are directed, the argument proceeds 
which demonstrates the nature of the first cause, as in essence, intelli¬ 
gence and will. 

The best and highest Greek philosophy ascended by this cosmo¬ 
logical argument to a just and sublime conception of God as the 
supremely wise, powerful and good Author of all existing essences in 
the universe, and of all its complex, harmonious order. Cicero, the 
Latin interpreter of Greek philosophy, with cogent reasoning and in 
language of unsurpassed beauty, has summarized its best lessons in 
natural theology. In brief, his argument is that since the highest 
human intelligence discovers in nature an intelligible object far sur¬ 
passing its capacity of apprehension, the design and construction of the 
whole natural order must proceed from an author of supreme and 
divine intelligence. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


51 


The questioning and the demand of reason for the deepest causes 
of things is not, however, yet entirely and explicitly satisfied. The 
concept of God as the first builder and mover of the universe comes 
short of assigning the first and final cause of the underlying subject 
matter which receives formation and motion. When and what is the 
first matter of our solar nebula? How and why did it come to be in 
hand and lie in readiness for the divine architect and artist to make it 
burn and whirl in the process of the evolution of sun and planets? 
Plato is understood to have taught that the first matter, which is the 
term receptive of the divine action, is self-existing and eternal. 

The metaphysical notion of first matter is, however, totally differ¬ 
ent from the concept of matter as a constant quantity and distinct from 
force in chemical science. Metaphysically, first mattex has no 
specific reality, no quality, no quantity. It is not as separate from 
active force in act, but is only in potency. Chemical first matter exists 
in atoms, say of hydrogen, oxygen or some other substance, each of 
which has definite weight in proportion to the weight of different 
atoms. It would be perfectly absurd to imagine that the primitive 
nebulous vapor which furnished the material for the evolution of the 
solar system was in any way like the platonic concept of original chaos. 
We may call it chaos, relatively to its later, more developed order. 
The artisan’s workshop, full of materials for manufacture, the edifice 
which is in its first stage of construction, are in a comparative disorder, 
but this disorder is an inchoate order. 

So, our solar chaos, as an inchoate virtual system, was full of ini¬ 
tial, elementary principles and elements of order. The platonic first 
matter was supposed to be formless and void, without quality or quan¬ 
tity, devoid of every ideal element or aspect, a mere recipient of ideas 
which God impressed upon it. The undermost matter of chemistry 
has definite quiddity and quantity, is never separate from force, and as 
it was in the primitive solar nebula, was in act and in violent activity 
of motion. It is obvious at a glance that a platonic first matter, exist¬ 
ing eternally by its own essence, without form, is a mere vacuum, and 
only intelligible under the concept of pure possibility. Aristotle saw 
and demonstrated this truth clearly. Therefore, the analysis of mate¬ 
rial existences, carried as far as experiment or hypothesis will admit, 
finds nothing except the changeable and the contingent. 

Let us suppose that underneath the so-called simple substances, 
such as oxygen and hydrogen, there exists, and may hereafter be dis¬ 
cerned by chemical analysis, some homogeneous basis, there still 
remains something which does not account for itself, and which 
demands a sufficient reason for its being, in the efficient causality of 
the first cause. The ultimate molecule"of the composite substance 
and the ultimate atom of the simple substance, each bears the marks 
of a manufactured article. Not only the order which combines and 
arranges all the simple elements of the corporeal world, but the gath¬ 
ering together of the materials for the orderly structure; the union 
and relation of matter and force; the beginning of the first motions, 



The Crucifixion 









THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD , 


53 


and the existence of the movable element and the motive principle in 
definite quantities and proportions, all demand their origin in the 
intelligence and the will of the first cause. 

In God alone essence and existence are identical. He alone exists 
by the necessity of His nature, and is the eternal self-subsisting being. 
There is nothing outside of His essence which is coeval with Him, and 
which presents a real existing term for His action. If He wishes to 
communicate the good of being beyond Himself He must create out of 
nothing the objective terms of His beneficial action. He must give 
first being to the recipients of motion, change, and every kind of tran¬ 
sition from potency into actuality. The first and fundamental tran¬ 
sition is from not being, from the absolute non-existence of anything 
outside of God, into being and existence by the creative act of God; 
called by His almighty word the world of finite creatures into real 
existence. 

In this creative act of God the two elements of intelligence and 
volition are necessarily contained. Intelligence perceives the possi¬ 
bility of a finite, created order of existence, in all its latitude. Possi¬ 
bility does not, however, make the act of creation necessary. It is the 
free volition of the creator which determines him to create. It is 
likewise his free volition which determines the limits within which he 
will give real existence and actuality to the possible. We have al¬ 
ready seen that final causes must have an ideal pre-existence in the 
mind, which designs the work of art and arranges the means for its 
execution. The idea of the actual universe and of the wider universe 
which He could create if He willed must have been present eternally 
to the intelligence of the Divine Creator as possible. 

Now, therefore, a further question about the deepest cause of 
being confronts the mind with an imperative demand for an answer. 
What is this eternal possibility which is coeval with God? It is evi¬ 
dently an intelligible object, an idea equivalent to an infinite number 
of particular ideas of essences and orders, which are thinkable by in¬ 
tellect to a certain extent, in proportion to its capacity, and exhaust¬ 
ively by the divine intellect. The divine essence alone is eternal and 
necessary self-subsisting being. In the formula of St. Thomas: 
“Ipsum esse subsistens.” It is pure and perfect act, in the most 
simple, indivisible unity. 

Therefore, in God, as Aristotle demonstrates, intelligent subject 
and intelligible object are identical. Possibility has its foundation in 
the divine essence. God contemplates His own essence, which is the 
plentitude of being, with a comprehensive intelligence. In this con¬ 
templation He perceives His essence as an archetype which eminently 
and virtually contains an infinite multitude of typical essences, capable 
of being made in various modes and degrees a likeness to Himself. 
He sees in the comprehension of His omnipotence the power to create 
whatever He will, according to His divine ideas. And this is the 
total ratio of possibility. 

These are the eternal reasons according to which the order of 


54 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


nature has been established under fixed laws. They are reflected in 
the works of God. By a perception of these reasons, these ideas im¬ 
pressed on the universe, we ascend from single and particular objects 
up to universal ideas and finally to the knowledge of God as first 
and final cause. 

When we turn from the contemplation of the visible world, and sen¬ 
sible objects to the rational creation, the sphere of intelligent spirits 
and of the intellectual life in which they live, the argument for a first 
and final cause ascends to a higher plane. The rational beings who 
are known to us, ourselves and our fellowmen, bear the marks of con¬ 
tingency in their intellectual nature as plainly as in their bodies. Our 
individual, self-conscious, thinking souls have come cut of non-exist¬ 
ence only yesterday. They begin to live with only a dormant intellect¬ 
ual capacity, without knowledge or the use of reason. The soul brings 
with it no memories and no ideas. It has no immediate knowledge of 
itself and its nature. Nevertheless the light of intelligence in it is 
something divine, a spark from the source of light, and it indicates 
clearly that it has received its being from God. 

In the material things we see the vestiges of the Creator, in the 
rational soul His very image'. It is capable of apprehending the eternal 
reasons which are in the mind of God; its intelligible object is being 
in all its latitude, according to its specific and finite mode of apprehen¬ 
sion and the proportion which its cognoscitive faculty has to the think¬ 
able and knowable. As contingent beings, intelligent spirits come into 
the universal order of effects from which by the argument, a posteriori, 
the existence of the first cause, as supreme intelligence and will is in¬ 
ferred, and likewise the ideas of necessary and eternal truth which, as 
so many mirrors, reflect the eternal reasons of the divine mind, sub¬ 
jectively considered, come under the same category as contingent facts 
and effects produced by second causes and ultimately by the first 
cause. - , 

These ideas are not, however, mere subjective concepts. They 
are, indeed, mental concepts, but they have a foundation in reality, 
according to the famous formula of St. Thomas: “ Universalia sunt 
conceptus mentis cum fundamento in re.” They are originally gained 
by abstraction from the single objects of sensitive cognition; for 
instance, from single things which have a concrete existence, the idea 
of being in general, the most extensive and universal of all concepts 
is gained. So, also, the notions of species and genus; of essence and 
"existence; of beauty, goodness, space and time; of efficient and final 
cause; of the first principles of metaphysics, mathematics and ethics. 
But, notwithstanding this genesis of abstract and universal concepts 
from concrete, contingent realities, they become free from all con¬ 
tingency and dependence on contingent things, and assume the char¬ 
acter of necessary and universal, and therefore of eternal truths. For 
' instance, that the three sides of a triangle cannot exist without three 
angles, is seen to be true, supposing there had never been any bodies 
or minds created. There is an intelligible world of ideas, super-sensible 


THE RELIGIONS OF TLIE WORLD. 


55 


and extra-mental, within the scope of intellectual apprehension; they 
have objective reality, and force themselves on the intellect, com¬ 
pelling its assent as soon as they are clearly perceived in their self¬ 
evidence or demonstration. 

Now, what are these ideas? Are they some kind of real beings, 
inhabiting an eternal and infinite space? This is absurd and they can¬ 
not be conceived except as thoughts of an eternal and infinite mind. 
In thinking them we are re-thinking the thoughts of God. They are 
the eternal reasons reflected in all the works of creation, but especially 
in intelligent minds From these necessary and eternal truths we 
infer, therefore, the intelligent and intelligible essence of God in which 
they have their ultimate foundation. This metaphysical argument is 
the apex and culmination of the cosmological, moral, and in all its 
forms the a posteriori argument from effects, from design, from all 
“eflections of the divine perfections in the creation to the existence 
■jid nature of the first and final cause of the intellectual, moral and 
physical order of the universe. It goes beyond every other line of 
argument in one respect. From concrete, contingent facts we infer 
and demonstrate that God does exist. We obtain only a hypothetical 
necessity of His existence; i. e. a since the world does really exist it 
must have a creator. 

The argument from necessary and eternal truths gives us a glimpse 
of the absolute necessity of God’s existence; it shows us that He must 
exist, that His non-existence is impossible. We rise above contingent 
facts to a consideration of the eternal reasons in the intelligible and 
intelligent essence of God. We do not, indeed, perceive these eternal 
reasons immediately in God as divine ideas identical with his essence. 
We have no intuition of the essence of God. God is to us inscrutable, 
incomprehensible, dwelling in light, inaccessible. As when the sun is 
below the horizon we perceive clouds illuminated by his rays, and 
moon and planets shining in his reflected light, so we see the reflection 
of God in His works. We perceive Him immediately, by the eternal 
reasons which are reflected in nature, in our own intellect, and in the 
ideas which have their foundation in His mind. Our mental concepts 
of the divine are analogical, derived from created things, and inade¬ 
quate. They are, notwithstanding, true, and give us unerring knowl¬ 
edge of the deepest causes of being. They give us metaphysical 
certitude that God is. They give us also a knowledge of what God is, 
within the limits of our human mode of cognition. 

All these metaphysical concepts of God are summed up in the 
formula of St. Thomas: “ Ipsum esse subsistens.” Being in its in¬ 
trinsic essence subsisting. He is the being whose reason of real, self- 
subsisting being is in His essence; He subsists, as being, not in any 
limitation of a particular kind and mode of being, but in the whole 
intelligible ratio of being, in every respect which is thinkable and 
comprehensible by the absolute, infinite intellect. He is being in all 
its longitude, latitude, profundity and plentitude, He is being subsist¬ 
ing in pure and perfect act, without any mixture of potentiality or 




Raising the Son of the Widow of Nain. 































THE RELIGIOUS OE THE WORLD. 


57 


possibility of change; infinite, eternal, without before or after; always 
being, never becoming; subsisting in an absolute present, the now of 
eternity. Boethius has expressed this idea admirably: “Totasimul 
ac perfecta possessio vitae interminabilis.” The total and perfect pos 
session, all at once, of boundless life. 

In order, therefore, to enrich and complete our conceptions of the 
nature and perfections of God, we have only to analyze the compre¬ 
hensive idea of being and to ascribe to God, in a sense free from all 
limitations, all that we find in His works which comes under the gen¬ 
eral idea of being. Being, good, truth, are transcendental notions 
which imply each other. They include a multitude of more specific 
terms, expressing every kind of definite concepts of realities which 
are intelligible and desirable. Beauty, splendor, majesty, moral excel¬ 
lence, beatitude, life, love, greatness, power and every kind of per¬ 
fection are phases and aspects of being, goodness and truth. Since 
all which presents an object of intellectual apprehension to the mind 
and of complacency to the will in the effects produced by the first 
cause must exist in the cause in a more eminent way, we must predi¬ 
cate of the Creator all the perfections found in creatures. 

The vastness of the universe represents His immensity. The 
multifarious beauties of creatures represent His splendor and glory as 
their archetype. The marks of design and the harmonious order 
which are visible in the world manifest his intelligence. The faculties 
of intelligence and will in rational creatures show forth in a more per¬ 
fect image the attributes of intellect and will in their Author and orig¬ 
inal source. All created goodness, whether physical or moral, pro¬ 
claims the essential excellence and sanctity of God. He is the source 
of life, and is, therefore, the living God. All the active forces of 
nature witness to His power. 

All finite beings, however, come infinitely short of an adequate 
representation of their ideal archetype; they retain something of the 
intrinsic nothingness of their essence, of its potentiality, changeable¬ 
ness and contingency. Many modes and forms of created existence 
have an imperfection in their essence which makes it incompatible 
with the perfection of the divine essence that they should have a for¬ 
mal being in God. We cannot call him a circle, an ocean or a sun. 
Such creatures, therefore, represent that which exists in their arche¬ 
type in an eminent and divine mode, to us incomprehensible. And 
those qualities whose formal ratio in God and creatures is the same, 
being finite in creatures, must be regarded as raised to an infinite 
power in God. Thus intelligence, will, wisdom, sanctity, happiness 
are formally in God, but infinite in their excellence. 

All that we know of God by pure reason is summed up by Aris¬ 
totle in the metaphysical formula that God is pure and perfect act, 
logically and ontologically the first principles of all that becomes by 
a transition from potential into actual being. And from this concise, 
comprehensive formula he has developed a truly admirable theodicy. 
Aristotle says: “It is evident that act (energeia) is anterior to 


58 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


potency (dunamis) logically and ontologically. A being does not 
pass from potency into act and become real except by the action of a 
principle already in act.” (Met. viii, 9.) Again, “All that is pro¬ 
duced comes from a being in act.” (De Anim. iii, 7.) 

“There is a being which moves without being moved, which is 
eternal, is substance, is act. * * * The immovable mover is 

necessary being, that is, being which absolutely is, and cannot be 
otherwise. This nature, therefore, is the principle from which heaven 
(meaning by this term immortal spirits who are the nearest to God) 
and nature depend. Beatitude is his very act. * * * Contempla¬ 

tion is of all things the most delightful and excellent, and God enjoys 
it always, by the intellection of the most excellent good, in which 
intelligence and the intelligible are identical. God is life, for the act 
of intelligence is life and God is this very act. Essential act is the 
life of God, perfect and eternal life. Therefore we name God a perfect 
and eternal living being, in such a way that life is uninterrupted; 
eternal duration belongs to God, and indeed it is this which is God.” 
(Mec. xi., 7.) I have here condensed a long passage from Aristotle 
and inverted the order of some sentences, but 1 have given a verbally 
exact statement of his doctrine. 

I will add a few sentences from Plotinus, the greatest philosopher 
M Wc Aeo-Platonic school. “Just as the sight of the heavens and the 
oriiliant stars causes us to look for and to form an idea of their author, 
so the contemplation of the intelligible world and the admiration 
which it inspires lead us to look for its father. Who is the one, we 
exclaim, who has given existence to the intelligible world? Where 
and how has he begotten such a child, intelligence, this son so beau¬ 
tiful? The supreme intelligence must necessarily contain the universal 
archetype, and be itself that intelligible world of which Plato dis¬ 
courses.” (Ennead iii. L viii. 10 v. 9.) Plato and Aristotle have both 
placed in the clearest light the relation of intelligent, immortal spirits 
to God as their final cause, and together with this highest relation the 
subordinate relation of all the inferior parts of the universe. Assimi¬ 
lation to God, the knowledge and the love of God, communication in 
the beatitude which God possesses in Himself, is the true reason of 
being, the true and ultimate end of intellectual natures. 

In these two great sages rational philosophy culminated. Clem¬ 
ent, of Alexandria, did not hesitate to call it a preparation furnished 
by divine Providence to the heathen world for the Christian revela¬ 
tion. Whatever controversies there may be concerning their explicit 
teachings in regard to the relations between God and the world, their 
principles and premises contain implicitly and virtually a sublime nat¬ 
ural theology. St. Thomas has corrected, completed and developed 
this theology with a genius equal to theirs, and with the advantage of 
a higher illumination. 

It is the highest achievement of human reason to bring the intel¬ 
lect to a knowledge of God as the first and final cause of the world. 
The denial of this philosophy throws all things into night and chaos, 




THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 59 

ruled over by blind chance or fate. Philosophy, however, by itself 
does not suffice to give to mankind that religion the excellence and 
necessity of which it so brilliantly manifests. Its last lesson is the 
need of a divine revelation, a divine religion, to lead men to the 
knowledge and love of God and the attainment of their true destiny 
as rational and immortal creatures. A true and practical philosopher 
will follow, therefore, the example of Justin Martyr; in his love of and 
search for the highest wisdom he will seek for the genuine religion 
revealed by God, and when found he will receive it with his whole 
mind and will.. 






CHRIST AND ST. PETER,-Ptockhurst 











IL 

MAN. 



]V|an’s place in feature. 


By Prof. A. B. BRUCE, of Glasgow. 



tion. 


HAT is man? A century ago our pious 
grandfathers would have replied: 
“ The lord and king of creation.” The 
latest science has not dethroned him. 
The evolutionary theory as to the 
genesis of things confesses that man 
is at the head of creation as we know 
it. It not only confesses this truth, it 
proves it, sets it on a foundation of 
scientific certainty, making man ap¬ 
pear the consummation and crown of 
the evolutionary process in that part 
of the universe with which it is our 
power to become thoroughly ac¬ 
quainted. 

It is not quite a settled matter that 
man is out and out the child of evolu- 
That he is the product of evolution on the 
animal side of his nature is now all but universally 
acknowledged. Any dispute still outstanding re¬ 
lates to the psychical aspect of his being—to his intellect and his con¬ 
science. It is on this side admittedly that man’s distinction lies and 
that he stands furthest apart from the lower animal creation. Many 
are inclined to abide by the position of Russell Wallace, who re¬ 
stricted the application of evolution in the case of man to his bodily 
organization. Yet, on the other hand, for one who is mainly concerned 
for the religious significance of man’s position in the universe, the 
interest by no means lies exclusively on the more conservative and 
cautious side of the question. Making man out and out the child of 
evolution, if it can be done, without sacrifice of essential truths, has 
its advantages for the cause of theism. On this view the process of 
evolution becomes an absolutely universal mother of creation, whereof 
man in his entire being is the highest and final product. And what 
we gain from this conception is the right to interpret the whole pro¬ 
cess by its end. By putting man in his highest nature apart from the 

63 




64 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


process and regarding him in that respect as the creature of an im¬ 
mediate divine agency, we lose this right. In reason and conscience 
outside the great movement, he is neither explained by it nor does he 
explain it in turn. But bring him soul as well as body within the 
movement and we have a right to point to all that is highest in him and 
say: This is what was aimed at all along; this is the goal toward 
which the age-long process of Genesis was marching, even toward the 
evolution of mind and spirit under the guidance of reason and will. 

Provisionally, therefore, we may venture to accept the evolution¬ 
ary account of man all along the line. That means that we regard 
man physically as shown by similarity of anatomical structure, con¬ 
nected with the family of apes and by the successive stages through 
which he passes in the embryonic period of his history betraying kin¬ 
ship with the whole lower animal world. It means, further, that we 
regard man intellectually as evolved from the rudiments of reason 
traceable in the brute creation The contrast is so great that the 
growth of the higher out of the lower seems incredible. Man thinks 
and plans, the brute acts by blind instinct. Man forms highly abstract 
concepts, the brute is capable at most of forming what has been called 
“precepts,” spontaneous associations of similar objects so as to be able 
to distinguish between a stone and a loaf, between water and rock, so 
as to avoid trying to eat a stone or to dive into a rock; “implicit, 
unperceived abstractions ” Once more; man speaks, the brute, at 
most, can only make significant signs. How far the human animal has 
outstripped his humbler brothers! 

But great advances can be made by very small steps if sufficient 
time be given. And there was plenty of time, according to the geol¬ 
ogists. Man has been in existence since the ice age—say two hundred 
and fifty thousand years. Surely, within that period, precepts might 
slowly pass into concepts, and inarticulate sounds into articulate 
words! The dawn of reason inaugurates the crude beginning of lan¬ 
guage, and the use of language in turn stimulates the further develop¬ 
ment of reason. Of course, we are not to conceive of primitive man as 
speaking in highly developed language, as Sanskrit or Greek; perhaps 
for a long time he could not speak at all, but a man in body, he 
remained a mere animal in the use of signs. And even after the epoch 
of speech came the evolution of language, proceeding at a very slow 
rate of movement. A word at first represented a whole sentence. 
Then the parts of speech were slowly differentiated, the pronoun first, 
but in so leisurely a way that it took perhaps a few thousands of years 
to learn to say “I.” 

Such is the account of the evolution of intellect given by experts, 
and we accept it provisionally as in substance correct. We accept! 
further, the evolution of morality. And that means that the sense of 
duty and moral conduct have been evolved out of elements traceable 
in the brute creation, such as the instinct of self-preservation, natural 
care of young and the social disposition characteristic of the ant, the 
bee and the beaver. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


65 


An important factor in raising ethics from the animal to the human 
level was, of course, reason. Reason looks to the future and forms an 
idea of life as a whole and to develop the prudence which can sacrifice 
present pleasure for ultimate gain. Another important factor was the 
prolongation of the period of infancy, upon which Mr. Fiske has rightly 
laid emphasis. This depth and purity of parental and filial affections 
laid the foundation of that great nursery of goodness, the family. 
Finally, out of the social instinct, as real a part of human nature as the 
instinct of self-preservation, came the power and disposition to appre¬ 
ciate the claims of the community and to sacrifice the interests of the 
individual to the interests of the tribe, the nation or the race. 

Such is man’s place in nature, according to modern science—wholly 
the child of evolution, its highest product hitherto, and to all appear¬ 
ance the highest producible. If man had not been, it would not have 
been worth while, for the lower world would not have come into exist¬ 
ence. This is how the theist must view the matter. He must regard 
the sub-human universe in the light of an instrument to be used, in 
subservience to the ends of the moral and spiritual universe and created 
by God for that purpose. The Agnostics can evade this conclusion 
by regarding the evolution of the universe as an absolutely necessary 
and aimless process which cannot but be, has no conscious reason for 
being, no purpose to arrive at any particular destination, but moves on 
blindly in obedience to mechanical law. If it arrive at length at man, 
why, then says the materialist, we can only conclude that it is in the 
nature of mechanics to produce in the long run mind, and of motion 
to be permuted ultimately into thought. For us this theory is once for 
all impossible. We must believe in God, Maker of heaven and earth. 
And believing in Him we look for a plan in His work. 

It is worthy of note here, how far from being out of date is the 
view of man’s relation to God given in the Hebrew writings. By ab¬ 
staining from all elaborate cosmogony and confining attention to the 
purely religious aspects of the world, the Scriptures have given a rep¬ 
resentation which, for simple dignity and essential trust, leave little to 
be desired: “God said, let us make man in our own image.” This is 
a flash of direct insight and “inspiration,” not an inference from scien¬ 
tific knowledge of the exact method of creation. It is, however, asso¬ 
ciated with the perception that man’s place in the world is one of lord- 
ship. In both cases, the Hebrew prophet by religious intuition grasped 
truths which our nineteenth century science has only confirmed. Man 
is lord, therefore God is manlike. The point that needs emphasizing 
today is not that man is like God, but that God is like man, for it is 
God, His being and nature that we long to know, and we welcome any 
legitimate avenue to this high knowledge. And man, by his place in 
nature, is accredited to us as our surest, perhaps our sole source of 
knowledge. And it confirms us in the use of this source to find that 
ancient wisdom as represented by the Hebrew sage, to whom we owe 
the story of Genesis, indirectly indorses our method by proclaiming 
that in man we may see God’s image. 



66 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Men everywhere and always have conceived their Gods as man¬ 
like. They have done so too often in most harmful ways, imputing to 
the Divine, human passions and vices. This, however lamentable and 
pernicious, was inevitable. There is no effectual cure for it except the 
growth of mankind in its ethical ideal. The purification of religion will 
keep step with the elevation of morality. From the abuses of the past 
we must not rush to the conclusion that the notion of God being like 
man is false, and the great thing is to get rid of anthropomorphism, as 
Mr. Fiske expressed it “the anthropomorphisation” of the idea of God. 
The desideratum rather is to conceive God not as like what man is, or 
has been, in any stage of his moral development, but as like what man 
will be when his moral development has reached its growth. There 
has been, indeed, a rudimentary likeness all along from the day when 
man became, in the incipient degree, human. It is not necessary to 
take the image of God ascribed to man in Genesis in too absolute a 
sense. The likeness was in outline, in skeleton, in germ, in fruitful 
possibilities rather than in realized fact. And what we have to do is to 
interpret God through man, not in view of what man is, but of what 
man has in him to become. 

It is safe to say that God is what man always has been in germ, a 
rational, free, moral personality. But it is not safe to fill in the picture 
of the divine personality by an indiscriminate imputation to God of 
the very mixed contents of the average human personality. Our very 
ideals are imperfect; how much more our realizations. Our theology 
must be constructed, therefore, on a basis of careful, impartial self- 
criticism, casting aside as unfit material for building our system not 
only all that can be traced to our baser nature, but even all in our 
highest thoughts, feelings and aspirations that is due to the influence 
of the time-spirit, or is merely an accident of the measure of civiliza¬ 
tion reached in our social environment. The safest guides in theology 
are always the men who are more or less disturbed because they are 
in advance of their time; the men of prophetic spirit, who see lights 
not yet above the horizon for average moral intelligence; who cherish 
ideals regarded by the many as idle, mad dreams;.who, while affirming 
with emphasis the essential affinity of the divine with the human, 
understand that even in that which is truly human, say in pardoning 
grace, God’s thoughts rise above man’s as the heavens rise above the 
earth. 

On this view it would seem to follow that each age made its own 
prophets to lead it in the way of moral progress, and set before it ideals 
in advance of those which had been the guiding lights in the past. 
And yet it is possible that there may be prophets of bygone days 
whose significance as teachers has been by no means exhausted. This 
may be claimed pre-eminently for Him whom Christians calltheir Lord. 
I do not expect a time will ever come when men may say, we do not 
need the teaching of Jesus any more. That time has certainly not 
come yet. We have not got to the bottom of Christ’s doctrine of God 
and man, as related to each other as father and son. How beautifully 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


67 


He has therein set the great truths that God is manlike and man god¬ 
like, making man at his best the emblem of God, and at the worst the 
object of God’s love. All fathers are not what they ought to be, but 
even the worst fathers have'a crude idea what a father should be; and, 
howsoever bad a father may be, he will not give his hungry child a 
stone instead of bread. Therefore, every father can know God through 
his own paternal conscience, and hope to be treated by the Divine 
Father as he knows he ought himself to treat his children. And the 
better fathers and mothers grow, the better they will know God. The- 
ology will become more Christian as family affection flourishes. And 
what a benefit it will be to mankind when Christ’s doctrine of father¬ 
hood has been sincerely and universally accepted: Every man God’s 
son; therefore, every man under obligation to be godlike, that is, to be 
a true man, self-respecting and worthy of respect. Every man God’s 
son; therefore, every man entitled to be treated with respect by fellow- 
men, despite poverty, low birth, yea, even in spite of low character, 
out of regard to possibilities in him. Carry out this programme and 
away goes caste in India, England, America, everywhere, in every land 
where men are supposed to have forfeited the rights of a man by birth, 
by color, by poverty,by occupation; and where many have yet to learn 
the simple truth quaintly stated by Jesus when He said, '‘Much is man 
better than a sheep.” 

Does the view of man as the crown of evolutionary process throw 
any light on his eternal destiny? Does it contain any promise of 
immortality? Here one feels inclined to speak with bated breath. A 
hope so august, so inconceivably great, makes the grasping hand of 
faith tremble. We are tempted to exclaim, behold, we know not any¬ 
thing. Yet, it is worthy of note that leading advocates of evolutionism 
are among the most pronounced upholders of immortality. Mr. Fiske 
says: “For my own part I believe in the immortality of the soul, not 
in the sense in which I accept the demonstrable proofs of a science, but 
as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God’s work.” He 
cannot believe that God made the world, and especially its highest 
creature, simply to destroy it like a child who builds houses out of 
rocks just for the pleasure of knocking them down. Not less strongly 
Le Conte writes: “Without spirit-immortality this beautiful cosmos, 
which has been developing into increasing beauty for so many millions 
of years, when its evolution has run its course and all is over, would 
be precisely as if it had never been—an idle dream, an idle tale, signi¬ 
fying nothing.” 

These utterances, of course, do not settle the question. But, con¬ 
sidering whence they emanate, they may be taken at least as an 
authoritative indication that the tenet of human immortality is con¬ 
gruous to, if it be not a necessary deduction from, the demonstrable 
truths that man is the consummation of the great world-process, by 
which the universe has been brought into being. 



Very Rev. Thomas S. 


Byrne, Cincinnati. 













Man prom a C hr istian Point of View* 

By Rev. THOMAS S. BYRNE, D. D., of Cincinnati, Ohio. 



R. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I 
stand here as a representative of an 
ancient faith and a venerable church, 
upon whose altars the sun never sets, to 
lay before you in plain words the teach¬ 
ing of that church concerning man and 
his relations to his God—a subject as¬ 
suredly of supreme importance to us all, 
whether for our peace in this world, or 
our happiness in the next. 

Man, according to Catholic teach¬ 
ing, is the crown and perfection of 
all things in the visible creation. He is 
created with a noble purpose and a high 
destiny in the image of God and after 
His likeness. He is dowered with the 
power of intellect and will, setting him above 
all created things of earth and making him 
Godlike in his nature. He longs to reach the 
higher and better things to which, by an imperative and ever-urgent 
law, he necessarily aspires. He has cravings of the soul which no 
created thing is adequate to satisfy. The greater his natural endow¬ 
ments, the higher their cultivation, the broader his knowledge, the more 
ample and penetrating his intellectual swing and reach, the deeper and 
more exhausting will be the sense of a purpose unfilled, of unsatisfied 
yearning and baffled hope. Splendid intellectual gifts and exceptional 
mental training; moral refinement, culture and wealth; social pre¬ 
eminence and commanding political power; great civic achievements, 
and the most coveted prizes of fortune—all these but serve to accentu¬ 
ate and render more sensitively acute those wasting longings and that 
fruitless reaching out after an object that will satisfy the cravings of 
the soul and satiate the hunger of the heart. He makes his own the 
words of disappointment and bitterness uttered by the ancient king: 

I heaped together for myself silver and gold and the wealth of kings 
and provinces. And whatever my eyes desired I refused them not, 

69 



70 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure. But I saw 
in all things vanity and vexation of spirit, and nothing was lasting 
under the sun. “And thus his mind opens to the hopelessness of his 
efforts and to the utter inadequacy of himself and all things visible to 
bring him happiness and peace.” Like St. Augustine of old, exhausted, 
disappointed, almost hoping against hope, he is forced to lift his heart 
to God and say: “ Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart is 
restless until it finds peace in Thee.” Man may cry, “ Peace, peace, 
when there is no peace,” nor can there be until the capacities of the 
soul are filled by an object so excellent and so perfect that its posses¬ 
sion will give complete contentment in this world and the promise of 
the vision of glory in the next. And if the capacities and aspirations 
of the soul, its imperative demands and unsatisfied desires; its hopes 
and longings, are not to be gratified and an object supplied them either 
in this world or in the next, or rather partially in this life and fully in the 
life to come, of such magnitude and power, of such transcendent beauty 
and incomparable perfection, as to fill the intellect with knowing, the 
heart with loving, and hush, in the tranquil serenity of complete 
possession, the clamorous cravings of the soul, then is man, in spite of 
his splendid gifts and royal prerogatives, literally and emphatically 
the most imperfect and stunted being in all visible creation; for then 
will man, and man alone, of all objects in the visible universe, fail to 
fulfill the purpose for which by nature he is designed and for which 
his every aspiration is almost an articulate prayer. 

The Catholic says man has a high destiny that he can reach, a 
noble purpose that he can achieve; that he may enjoy here on earth 
a serene peace and confidently look forward to the surpassing joy of 
living forever in the smile of God and in the ecstasy of His love. That 
such conviction, however, and confident hope have never been reached, 
and cannot be, by the unaided powers of man, the cry of discontent 
and fruitless endeavor that has gone up from the heart of man from 
the beginning, and the bootless groping in the dark in search of an 
oracle to answer the questionings of the soul, dispel its mists, and 
tranquilize its misgivings, abundantly prove. 

It is beyond expression sad to read the history of religious sys¬ 
tems, laboriously thought out by man in his pride, by which he has 
sought to make, not man to the likeness of God, but God to the like¬ 
ness of man. The religious history of the world is filled with the 
narratives of wrecked systems, as proudly and confidently launched 
in their day as are equally pretentious systems in our own, and these, 
like their prototypes, buffeted by wind and wave, are as surely des¬ 
tined to vanish in the sea or to strew the shore. 

Man will be religious. It is a necessity and law of his being, and 
if he cannot rise to God, he will strive to draw down God to himself. 
“Lord, teach me to know myself, teach me to know Thee,” was the 
prayer that went up from the soul of the great bishop of Hippo, and 
the prayer to which he gave utterance has ever been the universal cry 
of the heart of man—to know one’s self, to know God. God and self 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


71 


are the two cardinal objects of man’s knowledge to which all his intel¬ 
lectual efforts converge and upon which they terminate. Once reason 
has dawned on him and the mind opens and expands to the signifi¬ 
cance and deep meaning of all he sees around about him, to the order 
and beauty, the variety and splendor, and the lavish profusion of vis¬ 
ible blessings, a knowledge of which is borne in upon him by eye and 
ear, and every avenue of sense, he asks himself and must ask himself the 
question: Whence all tnese strange surroundings bearing upon them 
the marks and tokens of a higher intelligence and the evidence of law 
and order, purpose and design? And he must ask himself the still 
more momentous question: Whence do I come? Whither am I go¬ 
ing? Am I, as the pantheist says, the most perfect manifestation of 
the Divine Essence, spirit of Its spirit and intellect of Its intellect? 
Or, to go to the other extreme of the scale, less flattering to the pride 
and vanity of man, am I but matter and sense, with a soul wholly de¬ 
pendent upon and the product of the digestive organs and a com¬ 
plex system of nerves with functions centering in the brain? 

I have been urging the inadequacy of all created things to satisfy 
the cravings or meet the exigencies of the nature of man, and the con¬ 
sequent need of a supernatural purpose and object to complete the life 
of the soul and fill its aptitudes and powers. The supernatural ele¬ 
ment in man is precisely what the world is losing sight of in its eager 
and absorbing pursuit of what gratifies sense and brings to the natural 
man an exhilarating, insidious, and evanescent enjoyment; and with¬ 
out the supernatural there can be no adequate explanation of man’s 
existence here on earth, no interpretation of life that will satisfy the 
reason, no object that will give full swing to the powers of the soul or 
bring peace and serene contentment to the heart. 

This has been the Catholic view of man from the beginning, and 
its importance cannot be overestimated. It lies at the very root of 
religion, and any error or shadow of error here vitiates and distorts 
the entire cycle of relations of man to his God. The ideas of man 
and God are correlative and inseparable; they come and go together, 
and a defective knowledge of the one necessarily implies an imperfect 
understanding of the other. 

To arrive at a knowledge of man in his primitive state, and of his 
prerogatives of nature and grace, it will be necessary to study him in 
revelation and as he has been restored, lifted up to his former estate 
and re-established in his privileges by our Lord Jesus Christ. From 
what has been given back we can determine what had been taken 
away, since his renewal in Christ is, within certain limitations, a resto¬ 
ration to his primal condition. According to Catholic teaching, the 
first man was created in the image and likeness of God. “ Let us 
make man to our image and likeness,” are the words that record the 
Divine purpose, as expressed by God Himself. And the record goes 
on to say that “ God formed man of the slime of the earth and breathed 
into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul,” thus 
making a clear distinction between body and soul, the former having 





CHRIST AND THE ADULTERESS.—Hoffman. 










THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


73 


been formed of the slime of the earth and the latter immediately 
created by God and breathed into the inanimate clay, and by its pres¬ 
ence illuminating the countenance and every feature with the glow 
and radiance of life, and making the eye resplendent with the light 
and intelligence of the rational, thinking, loving soul that looked out 
from it. This is, in brief, a statement, according to Catholic teaching, 
of the origin of man, and no theory yet advanced has been able satis¬ 
factorily to account for his existence in any other way. It has never 
been, nor can it be, scientifically established, that man is the product 
and most perfect result of evolution. Apart from the antecedent and 
intrinsic difficulty of the production from inorganic matter of an in¬ 
telligent, thinking principle with the power of seizing and compre¬ 
hending, analyzing and comparing truths wholly immaterial, ideal 
and intellectual, and passing judgment upon them and their manifold 
and varied relations one to another—apart, I say, from so stupendous 
a difficulty standing at the very threshold of the inquiry—the facts 
upon which science professes to rely for its inductions and conclusions 
to establish such a theory are confessedly either wholly wanting, or 
altogether inadequate. And until such facts are produced, of which 
there is no assuring promise for the future from the experience of 
the past, we may be permitted to accept what we hold to be the Di¬ 
vine record of the origin of man, and to profess a belief which has 
been the tradition of every race and people from the beginning until 
now, and which we see no reason to doubt will continue to be so until 
the end. 

And it is precisely the fact that the soul has been created by God, 
and is not the product of inorganic or any other form of matter, that 
gives it its dignity and puts upon it the seal and the glory of the 
Divine likeness. It is an active, energizing, thinking spirit, created 
for the body yet capable of an existence wholly independent of 
matter, constituting man a rational being and giving him pre-eminence 
and sovereignty “over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, 
and the beasts and every creeping thing that moveth upon the earth;” 
a spirit whose highest power and most splendid endowment are 
thought and intelligence. 

There is a second endowment or faculty of the soul which consti¬ 
tutes it in the likeness of God and necessary in man to the exercise of 
his sovereignty over inferior creation. He has the great and perilous 
prerogative of freedom of choice between good and evil. Nay, so 
untrammeled is he in the exercise of this gift that he can, if he will, 
lift his hand against the very God who called him into being. When 
God placed Adam in Paradise He commanded him not to eat of the 
fruit of the tree that was in the midst of the garden, and He warned 
him that on the day he did eat of it he should die the death, thus wit¬ 
nessing to the power of free will in the first man, by laying upon him 
a precept and attaching a penalty to its violation. We have, there¬ 
fore, the testimony of God Himself to the existence of the power of 
free choice in the head of the human race. Moreover, free will is im- 


74 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


plied in the very notion of a spiritual soul; for just as the intellect in 
its operations is not fettered by sense, but views objects that are borne 
in upon it first in one light and then in another—in their concrete 
existence, in their abstract definitions, and in all their multitudinous 
relations—so also is free will, being like the intellect a power of the 
soul, above and beyond the limitations and the bondage of sense. 
Nay, more, free will is the very condition of all morality whatsoever. 
It lies at the basis of civic virtue and social purity, of domestic peace 
and the sanctities of home. If this were not true, then would words 
of eulogy extolling the virtues and achievements of great men be 
meaningless verbiage, our courts of justice an elaborate farce, and our 
prison system a colossal tyranny. By intellect and will, by knowledge 
and the power of free choice, man rises to a sublime dignity and to 
the likeness of an Allwise and Provident God. We say of everything 
around about us, of the tiny blade of grass of the field and the majestic 
tree of the forest, of the falling apple and the sidereal systems moving 
in space, that all are manifestations of design and intelligent purpose, 
because they are under the dominion of law, work toward a definite 
end, and subserve a higher purpose. The power of apprehending and 
understanding the relations between cause and effect, of adapting and 
adjusting means to an end, is, if not the very definition of intelligence 
and free will, at least their adequate description. And in this man is 
like unto God, Whose presence, shut out from us by the veil of the 
visible universe, is luminously revealed in the laws by which that uni¬ 
verse is governed, and in the order and beauty which bring the opera¬ 
tion of these laws within the domain of sense and through sense to 
the intelligence of man. Such, according to the Catholic idea, is the 
nobility, such the dignity and pre-eminence of man. He is set as a 
very king over the created things of earth, yet responsible for the use 
of them to the God who gave him so royal a supremacy. 

A third natural attribute of the soul, which constitutes it in the 
likeness of God, is its immortality. It shall never see death. The 
body will go back to the earth whence it came, but the spirit will return 
to the God Who gave it, says the Holy Ghost. And this is what we 
should antecedently expect and conclude from the nature of the soul 
and its aspirations. Simple in its essence, it cannot perish of itself 
by disintegration; nor can it be destroyed except by the Creator Who 
called it into being. But this He will not do, for, as I have said, He 
has imbedded in it high hopes and divine aspirations; a conscious¬ 
ness of a capacity for better things; a hunger for knowledge nothing 
created can satiate; a yearning for an object adequate to fill the great 
void of the heart and worthy its best love. All these unsatisfied crav¬ 
ings of the soul must be stifled and extinguished if it be not immortal, 
and a notable exception be made to the ordinary dealings of Provi¬ 
dence as we see them revealed on every side of us. Every thing in 
the universe fulfills its purpose in its appointed time and place, and 
moves by fixed laws to the end which by its nature it is designed to 
reach, And is it to be said that the soul alone, the very flower and 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


75 


perfection of the creation about us, shall never reach the high destiny 
to which, in virtue of its transcendent powers and almost divine pre¬ 
rogatives, it is urged and impelled by a law as unvarying and imperative 
as that which draws the needle to the pole or holds the earth in its 
orbit? No, the constant and unfailing traditions of the families of 
men, whether living in the light of God’s countenance or walking in 
the shadow of death, is an abiding and ubiquitous witness that an All¬ 
wise Providence has made the belief in the immortality of the soul a 
part of the primitive revelation of nature and heritage of all mankind. 
He has put into the soul beliefs and hopes, aspirations and tendencies, 
which, were the soul not immortal, would be wholly without explana¬ 
tion and destitute of any adequate, rational purpose. 

Intellect and will and the immortality of the soul, are, the Catholic 
says, the three natural endowments which in man are the image of 
God. These perfections all men have in common with Adam. But 
Adam had a superadded perfection. He was, as the Council of Trent 
says, “holy and just,” or pleasing to God. This supernatural perfec¬ 
tion is called, and is, in matter of fact, sanctifying grace, which made 
Adam’s likeness to God fuller, more perfect and transcending than 
any natural gift, no matter how excellent, in that it lifted him above 
his own nature into a higher and diviner life, and established him in 
the love and friendship of God. 

We are told by St. Paul that as one man by his offense wrought 
the condemnation of all, so did our Lord by His justice work the justifi 
cation of all. What Adam forfeited Christ regained. What Christ 
regained, St. Paul tells us, is the privilege of being the sons of God 
and joint heirs with Christ, and of this, he says, the Holy Ghost giveth 
testimony. Christ, therefore, restored what had been lost, purchased 
with His blood what had been forfeited by sin. Through Him man 
regained the sonship and friendship of God, and is, or can be if he will, 
constituted in the supernatural life of grace. Hence these privileges, 
being a restoration of what had been, were the prerogatives of Adam. 
Again, St. John says: “We know that when He shall appear we shall 
be like to Him, because we shall see Him as he is;” that is, we shall enjoy 
the beatific vision, to which therefore Adam, in virtue of original jus¬ 
tice, had a claim, and which he might h£ve attained had he been loyal 
and abided in humility and the friendship of God. The condition of 
man in Paradise has been described as one of “original justice,” by 
which is meant not only that man was free from natural impulse or 
tendency contrary to God and His law, but thaft he lived in closest 
union with Him. This privilege was the free gift of God. It was in 
no way due to man’s nature or implied in it, or necessary to its integ¬ 
rity. It was a gift over and above man’s nature, which he could not 
secure by any effort of his own. It lifted him above human nature, 
and made him, through giace, a participator in the divine. It was a 
supernatural gift of the divine grace and condescension superadded to 
the natural endowments of man. That man was so lifted up into a 
serener atmosphere and a diviner life, and made in a sense Godlike, is 


76 


THE RELIC I OHS OF THE WORLD. 


not merely an opinion of theologians, but an integral part of the 
teaching of the church. 

And this brings out clearly the distinction and difference between 
Pantheism and the teaching of Catholic theology. The fundamental 
error of Pantheism is the necessary identity and equality of the divine 
nature and the human, and the consequent deification of man; where¬ 
as, Catholic theology teaches that the participation of the divine na 
ture, through grace, is in nowise due to man, is no part of the integ¬ 
rity of his nature, and could not become man’s by any effort or exercise 
of his aptitudes and powers. But that which is not due to him, and 
which he could of himself in no way attain, is the free, spontaneous 
and gracious gift of God. 

Besides the higher life of sanctifying grace, Adam enjoyed other 
privileges and immunities called preternatural. He received an in¬ 
fused gift of knowledge and understanding, and his heart was filled 
with wisdom in both the natural and supernatural orders. He was 
exempt from the solicitations of concupiscence. His animal passions 
and lower impulses were under the control and guidance of reason 
and obedient to its dictates and suggestions. The reason itself, being 
the expression of God’s law in the soul, yielded a ready and joyous 
obedience to its Author. There was in him no insubordination or tur¬ 
bulence of the passions, no pride of intellect. All was peace and har¬ 
mony, and a joyful acquiescence in the will of God. He had no ex¬ 
perience of what St. Paul calls the law of the members, warring against 
the law of the spirit. And over and above the harmony between the 
lower faculties and the higher powers of the soul, and between these 
again and the law of God, he enjoyed an immunity from death and 
from the evils and ills that afflict mankind. 

Such, then, substantially, is the meaning of Catholics when they say 
that Adam was created and constituted in the image and likeness of 
God. He had, to use the words of the late Cardinal Manning, three 
perfections: “First, he was perfect in body and soul. Second, he had 
the higher perfection of the Holy Spirit dwelling in his heart, whereby 
his soul was ordered and sanctified, and the passions were held in per¬ 
fect subjection to the reason and will. Thirdly, he had a perfection 
arising from the higher perfection, namely, immortality in body and 
perfect integrity in soul. So that he had three perfections: a natural 
perfection of body and soul; a supernatural perfection by the indwell¬ 
ing of the Holy Ghost; and a preternatural perfection of immortality 
—and all these by one act of disobedience he lost.” 

Adam, though richly endowed by nature and grace, and privileged 
to enjoy the friendship of God, had nevertheless to prove himself 
worthy of so large and so signal a grant of divine favor by acknowl¬ 
edging the supremacy of his Maker and his own condition of subjec¬ 
tion. In spite of the harmony that reigned in his nature through 
special divine prerogative, and the subduing influence and sweet at¬ 
traction of grace; in spite of the tokens and promises of a life un¬ 
touched by the hand of death, and of the ecstasy of living in the friend- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


77 


ship of God—in spite of all these gifts and the confident hope of their 
continuance, his freedom of will was noton that account diminished 
in power or limited in scope, and he was free to retain or reject the 
blessings he enjoyed. But if he would remain in possession of them 
he must be honest enough and humble enough—for humility is but 
honesty and truth—to recognize that they were the free, spontaneous 
gift of God, and that he was but the handiwork of his Maker. His 
endowments of nature and prerogatives of grace were so many and 
so transcending that unless he abided in humility there was dan¬ 
ger of his losing sight of the fact that he owed them all to another. 
He was like what we hear of the scions of great houses, who, coming 
by birth into the heritage of abundant wealth, exceptional privileges 
and historic and honored name, fail to keep in mind that the vast ad¬ 
vantages they enjoy and the eminence and distinction that give luster 
to their blood, are not due to their own merits, but to the talents, vir¬ 
tues and splendid achievements of great ancestors. God put Adam 
on trial, as He had done the angels. He put his humility to the proof. 
He gave him an opportunity to show himself worthy his inheritance 
and manifold benedictions. He exacted but a nominal acknowledg¬ 
ment, by which He reserved His right. His very generosity and good¬ 
ness, which should have filled the heart of Adam with an unceasing 
song of praise and thanksgiving, and an abiding memory of his sur¬ 
passing privileges, seemed, if I may use the word, a temptation to his 
weakness, in spite of the many stays and supports by which his will 
was steadied and strengthened. Forgetting his lowly estate and un¬ 
mindful of his blessings, he wantonly transgressed the light command 
that had been laid upon him as a test of his fidelity and gratitude. 
And so man’s first sin was committed, and the human race, in its head, 
was cut off from the friendship of God and cast out from an inherit¬ 
ance of countless benedictions. Original justice was forfeited, and to 
it as its opposite,, succeeded original sin, which thereby became the 
heritage of all mankind. The transgression of the law in Adam was 
our sin. We are not, indeed, guilty of Adam’s actual and personal 
sin, since our wills had no part in its commission; nor can original sin 
in Adam’s descendants be called sin in the strict and rigorous sense of 
that word. These terms denote the state to which Adam’s sin reduced 
his children. The act by which sin was committed is one thing; but 
the state.to which man is reduced by the commission of that sin is 
quite another. The one was transitory in character; the other is per¬ 
manent, and man is rightly/called a sinner as long as he abides in a 
state which is the consequence of sin. Adam, by his act of disobedi¬ 
ence, turned from God and forfeited his supernatural prerogative of 
sanctifying grace, and his posterity in consequence is born into the 
state of deprivation or original sin, which was the penalty of his 
offense. Excepting then the Blessed Virgin, who by special privilege, 
and because of her high office, had the fullness of grace from the first 
moment of her existence, all the children of Adam are under the dis¬ 
ability of his transgression. He was the. head of the human family, 





THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. 






















































the religions of the world . 


79 


pnd in him was contained the whole human race. This is the mean¬ 
ing of St. Paul when he says that one man’s offense wrought the con¬ 
demnation of all. And again: “ As by one man sin entered into the 
world, and by sin death, so death passed upon all mankind, in whom 
all have sinned.” Man, as has been said, had three perfections—his 
natural perfection as man, his supernatural perfection of sanctifying 
grace, and his preternatural perfection of immunity from concu¬ 
piscence, from bodily ills and death. The last two were lost. In con¬ 
cupiscence and the conflicting laws of the higher and lower nature 
man still bears about him the memorial and the consequences of the 
primal sin. Adam, by that one act of disobedience, and in him his 
entire posterity, fell from his high eminence to the level and condition 
of the natural man. Nay, more, his intellectual powers became en¬ 
feebled and his will infirm once the elevating influence and co-opera¬ 
tion of a diviner and higher life no longer illuminated and sustained 
them. In a word, he was stripped of his pre-eminent privileges and 
disinherited of the promises of his Father. He had committed an 
act of treason, and through it wrought our spiritual attainder. 

Man having forfeited the supernatural life, it was impossible for 
him by his own efforts to again enter upon it. It was simply beyond 
his powers. His condition was one of deprivation of what was not a 
part of his nature, to which as man he had no right or claim, and which 
lie could not regain by any power of his own. Yet it must not be sup¬ 
posed that man’s nature was by such loss corrupted or poisoned in its 
root. His intellect was still intact in all its natural powers, though 
less luminous, less penetrating and more liable to error because of the 
absence or the supernatural light that had been put out in the soul. 
His will was vacillating and unsteady, yet free and potent to choose 
between right and wrong, good and evil. The will was not, as one of 
the reformers asserted, a dumb beast, the slave and sport of any rider, 
malicious or benevolent, who might leap into the saddle. Neither was 
man’s nature essentially vitiated or changed, so that from generous 
wine it became acid vinegar, as another reformer put it. The effect 
of original sin was simply the deprivation of God’s grace and the con¬ 
sequences which such deprivation implied. He possessed, through 
the free gift of God, what was above his nature and beyond its limits, 
what conferred upon him supernatural dignity and eminence, and all 
this he lost by original sin. He was incapable, in his fallen state, of 
making reparation for his offense or of recovering sanctifying grace. 
God might have left man in this condition of exile with the evidences 
and tokens upon him of high lineage and noble descent, yet disinher¬ 
ited and stripped of his supernatural gifts and with only the hope of 
such reward as his natural virtues might merit. But in His great mercy, 
which is beyond bound or measure, God restored to him his forfeited 
privileges, and gave him the means of again living a supernatural life 
and of entering into the eternal inheritance for which such life is a 
preparation. “ His exceeding charity,” says St. Paul, wherewith He 
loved us when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together in 


80 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Christ, by whose grace you are saved.” Again, God could have waived 
His right to a satisfaction involving the death of His Divine Son, but 
this He did not see fit to do. In His Infinite wisdom He required an 
atonement adequate to the offense committed, and this could be made 
only by one equal in dignity to Himself. The distance between God 
and man is simply infinite. To bring together these two extremes, 
severed by sin, in the bonds of love; to devise a method of atonement 
by which finite man should offer adequate reparation for sin to an in¬ 
finite God, was a work worthy of Divine wisdom, omnipotence and 
love. And this is precisely what was accomplished in the Incarnation 
of the Son of God. Heaven and earth touched, “mercy and truth 
met, justice and peace kissed;” God and man were linked together in 
the bonds of indissoluble union. The divine nature assumed the hu¬ 
man in all its plentitude and powers, and of these two natures by a 
mysterious union, analagous to that which exists between body and 
soul, and technically called by theologians hypostatic, resulted the one 
personality of Christ, the acts of whose human nature had an infinite 
worth, inasmuch as they were the acts of a Person who was God. The 
sufferings and blood of Christ, though only His human nature suffered, 
had a divine value, because the acts take on the character of the Per¬ 
son, and the Person who suffered was divine. By this mystery of love 
the right of man to enter again into his forfeited inheritance was pur¬ 
chased. In Christ the heavenly harmony of our nature was restored. 
As He was the fullness of revelation, being, as St. John says, “the 
Word made flesh,” so was He the pattern Man. He was the New 
Adam. In Him the race of man was born again, and through Him 
men, one by one, may gain the prerogatives of grace and friendship of 
which Adam was stripped. I say, “ one by one,” for the fruits of 
Christ’s redemption have to be applied to men individually, internally 
communicated to the soul and made one’s own. As Adam, had he re¬ 
mained faithful, would have .transmitted to his posterity individually 
his preternatural and supernatural prerogatives and blessings, so also 
Christ, the Second Adam and our Spiritual Head, by an economy es¬ 
tablished by Himself, confers spiritual sonship and supernatural life 
on men, one by one. The grace of redemption is the fountain of life 
eternal, of which every man may freely drink if he will, but no man’s 
will is constrained, and the divine bounty is forced on no one. And this 
supernatural life of grace is, I repeat, literally made one’s own, and is an 
inherent and an intrinsic quality of the soul, constituting it in the image 
of God and restoring in it the divine likeness and the harmony and beauty 
of heaven. Men must be born into this mysterious and higher life. 
“Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God,” are the words of Christ Himself lay¬ 
ing down the condition of its attainment. To share the fruits of re¬ 
demption, then, man must have a new birth through water and the 
Holy Ghost, in fact, if possible, but if not, at least in will and desire; 
and if a new birth then a new life, and therefore new capacities and 
powers, new hopes and aspirations, new instincts and cravings. The 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


81 


}lj: e * n |: 0 ^ v hich man enters by this mysterious and heavenly birth is the 
hfe of the spirit of which St. Paul tells us so much, and hence his 
whole being is spiritualized and lifted to a supernatural plane. His 
soul is cleansed of all sin; his intellect acquires a clearer and a larger 
knowledge and a surer and steadier grasp of truth; his will is more 
firm and stable, his heart is purified; his affections and emotions are 
chastened, and, if true to his privileges and to himself, he lives verily 
in an atmosphere of truth, strength, purity and peace. 

The grace of God is around about us all. It encompasses us as an 
atmosphere. It is as warm as the sun and as luminous as light. The 
universe is a reflection of the presence of God. Every man born into 
the world has the natural law of God written in his heart and speaking 
a language of warning and menace in his conscience. The reason 
rightly exercised, can read the presence of God in the works of His 
hand, so that every soul has an illumination through reason and con¬ 
science and the visible universe, revealing the existence of an over¬ 
ruling Providence. Moreover, the Holy Ghost speaks without ceasing 
in the soul of every man born into the world, leading him to know God 
and to believe in Him, to love Him and to serve Him. But all who 
are saved must accept the blessing with the full and perfect freedom 
of their own will. Grace is ready at hand to fill the reason with light 
and the will with trust and the heart with love, and to bear man up 
among the wearing trials and harassing warfare of life; but grace will 
not force man’s will or constrain his freedom. The free use of such 
graces, together with the grace of prayer, is never denied or impossible 
to any man, so that there is no soul who does not receive sufficient 
grace to be saved if he is docile to the voice of conscience and obedi¬ 
ent to the suggestions of the Holy Ghost. And as each new light 
conveys a new truth to the soul it carries with it an added responsi¬ 
bility and a momentous obligation to follow whither the Holy Spirit 
leadeth. 

These graces, which are given to all men, do not, however, prop¬ 
erly constitute man in the supernatural life. What may be called 
the specific form and efficient cause of such life, and its sustaining 
principle, is sanctifying grace; and this, except in special cases in 
which God deals with souls in ways secret from us, is conveyed to man 
through,the sacraments or sacred rites established by Christ Himself. 
Christ, of His own free will and divine condescension, wrought the re¬ 
demption of the human race, and He is, therefore, free to convey its 
fruits to man in any way He in His wisdom sees fit. The primary and 
sovereign rule of belief and practice in all things pertaining to the 
economy of God with man is, the Catholic holds, the will of Christ, 
and not what seems fitting, or best, or most reasonable to us. The 
will of Christ, once it is known, must be the supreme rule and guide. 
Hence, relying on the words of Christ and His apostles, and on the 
living voice and universal and unbroken tradition of the church from 
the beginning, the Catholic says that Christ instituted certain specific 
rites, now called sacraments, as means and instruments to convey the 

6 














THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


83 


fruits of redemption to the soul; that the initial sacrament, by which 
the supernatural life is born in man, is baptism; and that this life is 
nourished, increased and perfected by the indwelling of the Holy 
Ghost in the soul, by the generosity of our own hearts and wills, and 
by the graces conveyed through the other six sacraments and the aids 
they supply, according to the dispositions, the needs and the condi¬ 
tions of men and of society. Through this supernatural gift man takes 
on a hew nature and begins a new life. The theological virtues of 
faith, hope and charity are infused into his soul. The effect of these 
virtues is analagous to what takes place in man by a repetition of acts. 
Man acquires skill of hand and eye, facility and precision in any art 
or handicraft, by constant and assiduous practice, so that what was 
once difficult and irksome comes to be done with ease and pleasure. 
It is a second nature, just as one writes and speaks correctly though he 
takes no thought of the laws which govern the arrangement and con¬ 
struction of language. Something analagous takes place in the soul in¬ 
to which the virtues of faith, hope and charity have been infused by 
baptism. They give the mind a supernatural bent, a love of Divine 
truth, a realization of the objects of faith, a ready acceptance of reve¬ 
lation and the commandments of God, a firm hope in His promises, a 
jnanly yet childlike and ardent affection for the person of Christ and 
His blessed mother, and a zeal for all that concerns His glory and the 
honor of His name. When the innocence and beauty of the Divine life 
conferred in baptism have never been lost or extinguished by mortal 
sin and rarely sullied by deliberate venial faults—a privilege granted to 
the fidelity of some saints—in such a soul there is an approach to the 
peace and harmony that reigned in the soul of Adam before his fall. 
Reason, illuminated by faith, goes before the will as a light in its path; 
the will is docile and obedient to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost; 
an atmosphere of grace pervades the soul, and concupiscence and the 
lower passions are dominated by its presence; gladness inundates the 
heart and the conscience enjoys a peace that is not of this world. 

It is clear, then, that the Catholic idea of man is this: That he is 
instinctively supernatural in his capacities and powers, his aptitudes 
and cravings, his aspirations and aims, and that he was so constituted 
from the beginning; that no created object can fill the void of his heart 
or still the cry of his soul; that he cannot work out his evident destiny, 
or accomplish the purpose of his creation without being grafted into 
the Spiritual Vine, which is Christ, and drawing from it the sap and the 
sustenance of his spiritual existence. To the Catholic the supernatural 
is the true and only adequate interpretation of man’s life; to him 
thoughts, words and actions have a supernatural and momentous sig¬ 
nificance, the knowledge and will of the agent being the measure of 
their malice or merit. To him they have no real value for eternal life 
unless they are in conformity with the law of God, luminous in his in¬ 
tellect, written in his heart and articulate in his conscience. His whole 
being is encompassed by the supernatural and by a sense of responsi¬ 
bility to his Creator and God. He believes that the intellect, if not 


84 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


taught of God, through the living and magisterial voice of the church, 
the pillar and ground of the truth, will cease to be a light and a guide 
to the will, and being once perverted will be the cause and source of 
countless errors of judgment and practical life. To him Divine truth 
and a Divinely appointed teacher are a first principle, and the most 
extravagant and illogical aberration of the human mind is this: That 
whereas in art, in business and in all the practical concerns of life man 
is guided by the application of scientific and fixed principles to prac¬ 
tical pursuits and ends, in religion alone, by which man professes to 
know God and serve Him and to order his whole being according to 
His law, he refuses to accept its Divine Author as a teacher, to submit 
his intellect to the immutable principles of revealed truth, or to give 
God the homage and service of his highest and most Godlike endow¬ 
ment. He professes to repudiate dogma or the eternal principles of 
religion and Divine truth, upon which all morals must in the last anal¬ 
ysis necessarily be based; for without God as a lawgiver there is no 
power to constrain the conscience of man, and, if not, then neither is 
there moral law nor sanction for human conduct. This, as I said, is to 
the Catholic the most irrational and illogical aberration of the human 
mind. As well might an architect, inspired by a benevolent purpose 
to benefit his fellowmen, and with the best intention to carry his pur¬ 
pose into execution, design Brooklyn bridge without a knowledge of 
the principles of mathematics; or a mechanic, impelled by motives 
equally laudable, build the majestic structure without adhering to the 
plans and specifications laid down for his guidance. To the Catholic, 
the acceptance of God as a Divine teacher, and a belief in His revela¬ 
tion, lie at the basis of religion and are the beginning of all justification. 
Faith, and the truths it contains as proposed by the church, the custo¬ 
dian of Divine truth and its living voice and infallible interpreter, an 
exact, precise, dogmatic faith, a living, active, energetic and practical 
faith, pervades his whole being and influences and gives character to 
his least, as well as his most, significant action. And next, as a con¬ 
sequence of faith and the body of truth it contains, come the com¬ 
mandments of God, or those rules of conduct which guide and direct 
him in justice and truth, and in his manifold duties and varied relations 
to God and man. And then, to follow the logical order, comes grace, 
in which every man born into this world lives and moves; which en¬ 
compasses him as an atmosphere; which God gives in amplest measure 
to every man who sincerely wishes to be converted and live; which is 
an antecedent condition to the supernatural life, its beginning, its 
cause, its sustaining principle and its perfection, and which unites man 
to God as a child to his Eternal Father by a bond as intimate as is 
possible between the Creator and His creature. By this rule, says the 
Catholic, shall man live; by this shall he be judged. 


in. 

IMMORTALITY. 




. 

X 














































jr I 













' 




















The Argument for {mmortality. 

By Rev. PHILIP S. MOXOM, of the University of Chicago. 


T is impossible, of course, within the limits of 
this brief paper even to state the entire argu¬ 
ment for the immortality of man. The most 
that I can hope to do is to indicate those main 
lines of reasoning which appeal to the average 
intelligent mind as confirmatory of a belief in 
immortality already existent. Three or four 
considerations should be noticed at the outset: 

First, it is doubtful if any reasoning on this 
subject would be intelligible to man if he did 
not have precedently at least a capacity for 
immortality. However we may define it, there 
is that in man’s nature which makes him sus¬ 
ceptible to the tremendous idea of everlasting 
existence. 

Here sits he, shaping wings to fly; 

His heart forebodes a mystery; 

He names the name Eternity! 

It would seem that only a deathless being, in the midst of a world 
in which all forms of life perceptible by his senses are born and die in 
endless procession, could think of himself as capable of surviving this 
universal order. The capacity to raise and discuss the question of 
immortality has, therefore, implications that radically separate man 
from all the creatures about him. Just as he could not think of virtue 
without a capacity for virtue, so he could not think of immortality 
without at least a capacity for that of which he thinks. 

A second preliminary consideration is that immortality is insep¬ 
arably bound up with theism. Theism makes immortality rational; 
atheism makes it incredible, if not unthinkable. The highest form of 
the belief in immortality inevitably roots itself in and is part of the 
soul’s belief in God. 

A third consideration is that a scientific proof of immortality is, at 
present, impossible in the ordinary sense of the phrase “scientific 
proof.” The life of the human spirit is a transcendent fact. It cannot 
be co-ordinated with the phenomena of nature on which the scientific 
mind is turned. Even the miracle of a physical resurrection, while it 

87 





Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D., Boston 















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


89 


would be demonstration of revival from death, would not prove immor¬ 
tality; for it would be a transaction quite as much on the plane of the 
material as revival from a swoon, and, as death supervened once, it 
might supervene again. 

Demonstration of immortality lies solely in the sphere of personal 
experience. The man who, from blindness, attains sight, has demon¬ 
stration of the reality of vision; but even he could not demonstrate 
that reality to blind men. So only the soul that has entered upon 
immortality has demonstration of that supreme reality, and “though 
one should rise from the dead,” yet would he be incapable of demon¬ 
strating immortality to mortal man. It is both interesting and 
immensely suggestive that while St. Paul evidently argues immortality 
from the attested resurrection of Jesus, Jesus Himself uttered no word 
basing the doctrine of immortality on the mere fact of His return from 
death in the spherfe of sense perception. True, He said to His disciples, 
“Because I live ye shall live also;” but that was an affirmation entirely 
apart from the implications of physical resurrection. 

None of the highest, the essentially spiritual, facts of man’s 
knowledge and experience fall within the scope of what is known as 
scientific proof. God, the soul, truth, love, righteousness, repentance, 
faith, beauty, the good—all these are unapproachable by scientific 
tests; yet these and not salts and acids and laws of cohesion and 
chemical affinity and gravitation, are the supreme realities of man’s 
life even in this world of matter and force. When one demands 
scientific proof of immortality, then it is as if he demanded the linear 
measurement of a principle, or the troy weight of an emotion, or the 
color of an affection, or as if he should insist upon finding the human 
soul with his scalpel or microscope. 

A fourth consideration is that immortality is inseparable from 
personality. The whole significance of man’s existence lies ultimately 
in its discreetness—in the evolution and persistence of the self- 
conscious ego. Men cheat themselves with phrases who talk about 
the re-absorption of the finite soul in the infinite soul. The finite and 
the infinite co-exist in this world; that of itself is proof that they may 
co-exist in the next world and forever. The absorption of the con¬ 
scious finite into the infinite is unthinkable save as the annihilation of 
the finite. 

With the semblance of deeply religious self-abnegation, this idea 
of human destiny mocks the heart and hope of man by eternally frus¬ 
trating the supreme end of aspiritual creation. The treasures of life— 
of its struggle and passion and pain—are inseparable from personality 
—the unfolding and perfecting being in whom the continuity of 
experience conserves the results of all the divine education of man; 
the perfected individual fulfilling himself in the perfected society, the 
ever unfolding kingdom of God. The loss of personality is, for man, 
the loss of being. Extinction is remediless waste. In nature there is 
no waste. Individuals perish, but the type remains in ever reclining 
forms that but repeat the antecedent forms by absorbing their disor- 


DO 


THE RELIGIONS OF TIIE l TO RLE. 


ganized substance. There is succession and there is economy, but no 
advance. In man, because he is a spiritual personality, there is the 
possibility and the realization of endless progress, not the mere recur¬ 
rence of types nourished on the decay of preceding types. 

The loss of personality is utter loss of life, and such self-abnega¬ 
tion as the poet contemplates, were it possible, would be suicide and 
the lapse of human life into absolute, hopeless failure. The plea that 
the desire for “personal immortality” (as if there were or could bean 
impersonal immortality) is selfish, is at once specious and false. The 
greatest service which we can render to our kind, present or future, is 
by and through the fullness and strength and sweetness of personality 
to which we attain. To covet this is the supreme passion of unselfish¬ 
ness. “One sows and another reaps,” said Jesus, but “that both he 
that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together.” 

The argument for immortality presents as its first, if not its 
weightiest consideration, the fact that the belief in the survival of the 
soul after death is well nigh universal. Practically, it is co-extensive 
and co-etaneous with the human race. In this respect it is like the 
belief in God. Within the bounds of our knowledge there is no people 
nor even a considerable tribe entirely destitute of some idea of God. 
Quatrefages and other anthropologists make this affirmation. In the 
case of rare apparent exceptions it is safe to assume that these are due 
to a ladle of adequate and accurate knowledge on the part of inves¬ 
tigators. So intimately are these two ideas related—the idea of God 
and the idea of the perdurable soul—that it is not surprising to find 
them held co-extensively by mankind. 

Immortality is not merely an idea to which man in his progress 
upward from the brute has attained, it is also and increasingly a desire. 

Thou madest man, he knows not why, 

He thinks he was not made to die. 

There is in humanity an instinctive revolt against death. This is 
far more than our natural recoil from the pain of physical dissolution. 
Indeed the fear of death is in part due to the still imperfect discrim¬ 
ination in the minds of most men between the fact of mere physical 
death and the complete extinction of being. Death is the palpable 
contradiction of life. Man 

Thinks he was not made to die 

And instinctively revolts from the threatened termination of his 
existence. 

The belief in immortality and the aspiration for immortality, not¬ 
withstanding apparent exceptions which a particular time, when 
special moods are dominant, seems to present, grow stronger with the 
growth of men, and they are strongest in the best. The wisest, the 
most spiritual, may be the least dogmatic, but they hold the finest and 
the most efficacious faith in the persistence of the human spirit 
thiough and beyond the death of the body. We are dealing here 
with a broad and multiform fact of experience and observation. Man 
does believe that 


He was not made to die. 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


91 


And that belief, allying with itself the most of the faiths and hopes 
and purposes that make life worth living, becomes a reasonable 
evidence that the belief is a result and reflex of the possession of 
immortality. 

Moreover, the universality and strength of the desire suggests its 
fulfillment. There is prophecy in pure and elemental human desire if 
we believe‘in God. The principle of correlation in natural, gains in 
significance as it is carried up into the spiritual realm. The adoption 
of supply to need in the whole realm of creature life surely does not 
cease the moment we rise above the level of sense. 

It is a fair inference that if man has an appetite and a need for an 
existence beyond the material life which he shares with plant and ani¬ 
mal, there is provision for that need in the divine ordering of the uni¬ 
verse. 

In the experience of men we see instinct growing into idea, and 
idea ripening into conviction, and conviction shaping not only philos¬ 
ophy but the entire conduct of life. That conviction gives steadiness 
to the thinker, patience to the sufferer and energy and inspiration to 
the toiler, for it makes life intelligible when otherwise it would sink in 
confusion and defeat. 

“For my own part,” says John Fiske, “I believe in the immortality 
of the soul, not in the sense in which I accept the demonstrable truths 
of science, but as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God’s 
work.” Man is God’s creature, the evolution of His thought and the 
product of His love, and his instinctive belief that “life is life forever 
more” is but his “faith in the reasonableness of God’s work.” 

The denial of immortality is always an artificial product; it is not 
a natural stage in the progress of thought, but the corollary of the 
philosophy which regards humanity not as an end, but as “a local inci¬ 
dent in an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes.” 

An argument for immortality is grounded in the nature of the 
human mind, that is, in the nature of man as an intelligent being. I 
cannot pause here to consider the materialistic conception of mind 
which excludes the possibility of life after the organism has perished, 
because it identifies mind with organism. It will suffice to quote these 
trenchant sentences from Fiske: 

“The only thing which cerebral physiology tells us, when studied 
with the aid of molecular physics, is against the materialist, so far as 
it goes. It tells us that, during the present life, although thought and 
feeling are always manifested. in connection with a peculiar form of 
matter, yet by no possibility can thought and feeling be in any sense 
the products of matter. Nothing could be more grossly unscientific 
than the famous remark of Cabanis, that the brain secretes thought as 
the liver secretes bile. It is not even correct to say that thought goes 
on in the brain. What goes on in the brain is an amazingly complex 
series of molecular movements with which thought and feeling are in 
some unknown way correlated, not as effects or as causes, but as con¬ 
comitants. * * * The materialistic assumption * * * that 


92 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the life of the soul accordingly ends with the life of the body, is per¬ 
haps the most colossal instance of baseless assumption that is known 
to the history of philosophy.” 

An argument for immortality, to many the strongest argument of 
all, is that which is drawn from revelation. Naturally this argument 
appeals chiefly to those whose minds have been nourished on the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The implications of the 
most spiritual utterances of the Hebrew prophets and psalmists are 
on the side of man’s immortality. The teachings of the New Testa¬ 
ment are surcharged with the idea and the atmosphere of immortality 
Whoever accepts these needs no other argument To expound them 
here in detail is unnecessary, even were there time. But revelation is 
broader than the Bible, for it is the communication of spiritual truth 
to man by the immediate action of the divine spirit, and that is not 
limited even to the great and incomparable writings of Hebrew 
prophet and Christian seer. But were we confined to the sacred 
scriptures we should have ample ground and reason for the faith 

That those we call the dead 

Are breathers of an ampler day. 

Whatever the Scriptures contain with respect to the triumph of 
the soul over death reaches highest expression in the character and 
teachings of Jesus. Nowhere does Jesus explicitly affirm the abstract 
truth of man’s immortality, but it is the ever-present assumption that 
is absolutely necessary to the intelligibility of His doctrines and His 
life and death. Many are His sayings which imply the deathlessness 
of the human spirit. Many and strong are His affirmations of life 
eternal. But more impressive even than His words are His constant 
air and temper. 

He speaks out of a consciousness of indwelling life to which death, 
save as an incident in physical experience, is absolutely foreign. The 
three words that are dominantly expressive of that consciousness are 
“light,” “life” and “God.” So domesticated is He in the sphere of 
eternal moral being that we feel no shock when He speaks of Himself 
as “The Son of man who is in Heaven.” The consciousness of Jesus, 
as revealed in His speech, approaches as near to a demonstration of 
immortality as is possible to souls that have not passed through the 
gate of death. In His last hours before the betrayal, fully aware of 
what awaited Him, with the seriousness that imminent death must ever 
give to the calm and thoughtful soul, He spoke to His disciples words, 
the significance of which lies less even in their explicit sense than in 
the time and situation and manner in which they were spoken: “Let 
not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in Me. In 
my Father’s house are many abiding places. If it were not so, I would 
have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and will receive you 
to Myself, that where I am ye may be also.” 

One cannot read those words, even at this remote day, without 
feeling the calm certainty as of impregnable faith and clear insight 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


93 


which breathes through them to infect his heart with happy con¬ 
fidence. 

The teaching of Jesus in its entire scope is unintelligible apart 
from the fact of immortality,and the unique person of Jesus and His 
transcendent life among men, and His profound and ever deepening 
influence on human lives is inexplicable apart from the fact of immor¬ 
tality Out of a full consciousness of an indwelling divine life which 
could not know death He said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” 
Such a personality and such a life would make man immortal by con¬ 
tagion. With true insight Emerson exclaimed: “Jesus explained 
nothing, but the influence of Him took people out of time, and they 
felt eternity.” 

Of revelation as a subjective experience in its bearing on the argu¬ 
ment for immortality little has been said, but somewhat has been im¬ 
plied in the preceding pages. The communication of God with man 
is not limited to objective means and forms In the deeper and simpler 
spiritual natures there is a witness of the ever permanent God. In 
man’s experience there are moments of illumination that compensate 
for many years of darkness and struggle and pain. There are crises in 
our lives when we suddenly grow conscious of the real greatness of our 
nature through the disclosure within us of capacities that nothing but 
the infinite and the eternal can satisfy Then the soul recognizes itself 
in God, and through communion with Him immortality passes from a 
faith into an experience—an actual participation in the eternal love 
and thought and being of God. 

Experience of this sort makes clear the truth that immortality is 
not only a divine gift, but also a moral achievement of man. In other 
worlds, as well as this, the fit survive, and the fit are they who, per¬ 
ceiving the prize, press their way into fullness of life by the avenues 
and process of the spirit. On the subject of immortality the science 
that deals with the facts and forces of matter has nothing to say, either 
for or against. To immortality a life of sensual indulgence is insensi¬ 
ble or repugnant. To the soul that knows God and strives toward the 
ideals of culture and character which rise in divine beckonings before 
us, immortality dawns in growing reasonableness and attractiveness, 
grows from a hope into an assurance, and from a serene faith deepens 
into a conscious experience which neither time nor death can bring to 
an end. 



CHRIST AND THE RICH YOUNG MAN. 



















IV. 

COMPARATIVE RELIGION. 





Comparative Religion. 


m 


HERE IS a kinship among the different relig¬ 
ions of the world. As Prof. Milton S. Terry 
observed at the World’s Parliament of Relig¬ 
ions, on “ The World’s Sacred Books:” 

“ I am a Christian and must needs look at 
things from a Christian point of view. But 
that fact should not hinder the broadest observ¬ 
ation. Christian scholars have for centuries 
admired the poems of Homer and will never 
lose interest in the story of Odysseus, the 
myriad-minded Greek, who traversed the roar¬ 
ing seas, touched many a foreign shore and 
observed the habitations and customs of 
many men. Will they be likely to discard the 
recently deciphered Accadian hymns and 
Babylonian penitential psalms? Is it probable 
that men who can devote studious years to the philosophy of Plato 
and Aristotle will care nothing about the invocations of the old Persian 
Avesta, the Vedic hymns, the doctrines of Buddha and the maxims of 
Confucius? Nay, I repeat it, I am a Christian; therefore I think there 
is nothing human or divine in any literature of the world that I can 
afford to ignore. My own New Testament Scriptures enjoin the fol¬ 
lowing words as a solemn commandment: 

“ ‘Whatever things are true, whatever things are worthy of honor, 
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are 
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and 
if there be any praise, exercise reason upon these things.’ ” Phil, iv., 8. 
i. Anthrop. & Compar. Religion: Prof. C. P. Tiele ( E?icy . Brit. 
9th) art. Religions) thus divides the faiths of the world: 





(ed. 


I. Nature Religio/is; 

1. Polydaemonistic Magical Religions under the control of Ani- 
Example, the religions of savages. 

Purified or Organized Magical Religions, Therianthropic Poly- 


mism. 

2. 

theism. 

(a) Unorganized. Example, the old Dravidian faith, the relig¬ 
ion of the Finns, etc. 

(b ) Organized. Example, the Egyptian religion, the more organ¬ 
ized American Indian faiths. 


7 


97 



98 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


3. Worship of man-like but superhuman and semi-ethical beings. 
Anthropomorphic Polytheism. Example, the Vedic, Zoroastrian, and 
various Semitic faiths, the Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, and Graeco- 
Roman religions. 

II. Ethical Religions: 

1. National Nomistic (Nomothetic) Religions. Brahmanism, 
Judaism, etc. 

2. Universalistic Religious Communities. Islam, Buddhism, 
Christianity. 

If the population of the world be estimated at 1,500 millions, the 
universalistic religious communities contain more than two-thirds of 
the human race, divided as shown in the following table: 


Creeds. 

Number of 
Followers. 

1 Christianity. 

477,088,158 

256,000,000 

190,000,000 

176,834,372 

2 Worship of Ancestors and 
Confucianism. 

3 Hinduism. 

4 Mohammedanism. 


Creeds. 

Number of 
Followers. 

5 Buddhism. 

147,900,000 

6 Taoism. 

43,000,000 

7 Shintoism. 

14,000,000 

8 Judaism.. 

7,056,000 

9 Polytheism. 

117,681,667 



























What the [)ead Religions j-J ave Be¬ 
queathed to the |_J v i n g* 

Paper by. PROF. G. S. GOODSPEED, of Chicago University. 


E come for the first time in this parlia¬ 
ment to the consideration of the dead 
religions. Naturally they do not 
claim our interest to such a degree as 
do the living. We come, as it were, 
to the threshold of the tomb. The 
air is likely to be a little musty and 
the passages somewhat dark. There¬ 
fore, if this paper shall, in some of its 
details, seem a little intricate, I. beg 
your consideration as I read it, and I 
feel certain that I shall have it by 
reason of the fact that my observation 
during the few days of these meetings 
has shown me how kind you are to 
the speakers. 

The form in which the theme as¬ 
signed to me is stated is suggestive. 
It implies that the religions of the world are 
not isolated or independent. They are related 
to one another, and so related that their attitude is not one of hos¬ 
tility. Even the dead religions have left bequests to the living. The 
subject also implies that these bequests are positive. It is not worth 
our while to consider the topic if we are convinced beforehand that 
the dead religions have left behind them only “bones and a bad odor." 
We are invited to recognize the fact that a knowledge of them serves 
a somewhat higher purpose than “to point a moral and adorn a tale;" 
to see in them stages in the religious history of humanity, and to ac¬ 
knowledge that a study of them is important, yes, indispensable, to 
adequate understanding of present systems. If they have sometimes 
seemed to show “what fools these mortals be" when they seek after 
God, they also indicate how He has made man for himself and how 

99 




100 


THE RELIGIONS' OF THE WORLD. 


human hearts are restless till they rest in Him. Though dead, they 
yet speak, and among their words are some which form a part of our 
inheritance of truth. 

These dead religions may be roughly summed up in several 
groups: 

1 . Prehistoric cults, which remain only as they have been taken up into more 
developed systems, and the faiths of half-civilized peoples like those ot Central 
America and Peru.* 

2 . The dead religions of Semitic Antiquity; that is, those of Phoenicia and 
Syria, of Babylonia and of Assyria. 

3 . The religion of Egypt. 

4 . The religions of Celtic Heathendom. 

5 . The religions of Teutonic Heathendom. 

6 . The religion of Greece. 

7 . The religion of Rome. 

It would be manifestly impossible in the brief limits of this paper 
adequately to present the material which these seven groups offer 
toward the discussion of this question. Even with a selection of the 
most important systems the material is too extensive. Our effort, 
therefore, will be directed, not toward a presentation of the material 
exhaustively or otherwise, but merely toward a suggestion of the pos¬ 
sible ways in which the achievements of these “dead” systems may 
contribute to a knowledge of the living religious facts in general, 
with some illustrations from the immense field which the above groups 
cover. 

There are three general lines along which the dead religions may 
be questioned as to their contributions to the living: 

1 . What are the leading religious ideas around which they have centered or 
which they have most fully illustrated? 

2 . What are their actual material contributions, of ideas or usages, to other 
systems? 

3 . In the history of their development, decay and death, how do they afford 
instruction, stimulus or warning? 

All religious systems represent some fundamental truth or ele¬ 
ments of truth. They center about some eternal idea. Otherwise, 
they would have no claims upon humanity and gain no lasting accept¬ 
ance with men. The religions of antiquity are no exceptions to this 
principle. They have emphasized certain phases of the religious sen¬ 
timent, grasped certain elements of the divine nature, elucidated cer¬ 
tain sides of the problem of existence, before which man cries out 
after God. It is not necessary to repeat that these truths and clear 
perceptions are often mingled with false views and pressed to extrav¬ 
agant and harmful lengths. But progress through the ages has been 
made, in spite of these errors, by means of the fundamental elements of 
truth, to which the very errors bear witness. These are the bequests 
of the dead religions to the world. They enrich the sum total of right 
thoughts, noble aspirations, worthy purposes. When patient and ana¬ 
lytic study of the facts of religious history has borne in upon one the 
validity of the principles of development in this field, these religions 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


101 


appear as parts of the complex whole, and the truths they embody 
enter into the sphere of religious knowledge as elements in its ever- 
increasing store. 

And not merely as units in the whole are these truths part of the 
possession of living faiths, but since that whole is a development in a 
real sense, they enter into the groundwork of existing religions. We 
do not deny that present life would not be what it is if Egypt and As¬ 
syria had not played their part in history; so correlated in all history. 
Can we then deny that present religion would not be what it is 
without their religions? An idea once wrought out and applied in social 
life becomes not only a part of the world’s truth, but also a basis for 
larger insight and wider application. Thus the great and fruitful prin¬ 
ciples which these dead faiths embodied and enunciated, have been 
handed down by them to be absorbed into larger and higher faiths, 
whose superiority they themselves have had a share in making possi¬ 
ble. How important and stimulating, therefore, is an investigation of 
them. 

An illustration may be drawn from the religions of two ancient 
nations, Egypt and Babylonia, which gave two highly influential relig¬ 
ious ideas to the world. There is the religion of Egypt, that land of 
contradiction and mystery, where men thought deep things, yet wor¬ 
shiped bats and cranes, were the most joyous of creatures, and yet 
seemed to have devoted themselves to building tombs; explored many 
fields of natural science and practical art, yet give us the height of their 
achievements, a human mummy. One central religious notion of Egypt 
was the nearness of the divine. It was closely connected with a funda¬ 
mental social idea of the Egyptians. 

The man of Egypt never looked outside of his own land without 
disdain. It contained for him the fullness of all that heart could wish. 
He was a thoroughly contented and joyous creature, and the favorite 
picture which he formed of the future life was only that of another 
Egypt like the present. What caused him the most thought was how 
to maintain the conditions of the present in the passage through the 
vale of death. The body, for example, indispensable to the present, 
was equally required in the future and must be preserved. Thus it 
came to pass that the Egyptian, happiest and most contented of all 
men in this life, has left behind him tombs, mummies and the book of 
the dead. Now in this favored land the Egyptian must have his gods. 
Deity must be near at hand. What was nearer than His presence and 
manifestation in the animal life most characteristic of each district? 

Thus was wrought into shape, founded on the idea of the divine 
nearness, that bizarre worship of animals, the wonder and the con¬ 
tempt of the ancient world. This idea, which underlay that animal 
worship, though so crudely conceived, was deeply significant and con¬ 
stituted a most important contribution to the world. 

Another great religion of ancient times—the Babylonian-Assyrian, 
contributed quite a different truth. Living in a land open on every 
side to the assaults of nature and man, and having no occasion tp 



Pharaoh Urges Moses 


to Leave Egypt. 




















































































































































































































































































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


103 


glorify Babylonia as the Egyptian exalted his native land, the Baby¬ 
lonian found his worthiest conception of the divine in an exalted deity 
who, from the heights of heaven and the stars, rained influence. He 
emphasized the transcendence of the divine. Time does not permit me 
to give the fuller explanation of the origin of this idea or to trace its 
growth. Surrounded by a crowd of indifferent or malevolent spirits, 
who must be controlled by a debasing system of magic, these men 
looked above and found deliverance in the favor of the divine beings 
who gave help from the skies. Their literature gives evidence of how 
they rose by slow degrees to this higher plane of thought in the con¬ 
stant appeal from the earth to heaven, from the power of the spirits to 
the grace of the gods. 

1. Whatever was its origin, it is noticeable that this ideaof theeleva- 
tion, separateness, transcendence of deity is a fruitful basis of morality. 
To put one’s self under protection of a Lord implies acknowledgment 
of a standard of obedience. At first purely ritual or even physical in 
its requirements, this standard becomes gradually suffused with ethical 
elements. The process is traced in the so-called Babylonian peniten¬ 
tial psalms, which, indeed, do not contain very clear traces, if any, of 
purely ethical ideas. But the fact remains that the Babylonian doctrine 
of the transcendence of deity thus developed out of the antagonism of 
natural forces is a starting point for the ethical reconstruction of relig¬ 
ion. Egypt never could accomplish this with her religion. She has 
nothing corresponding to the penitential psalms. 

These two primitive religious systems gave to the world these two 
fundamental ideas. These two earliest empires carried these ideas 
with their armies to all their scenes of conquest and their merchants 
bore them to lands whither their warriors never went. The significance 
of this is not always grasped; nor is it easy to trace the results of the 
diffusion of these conceptions. Standing among the earliest religious 
thoughts, which man systematically developed, they had a wonderful 
opportunity, and we shall see that the opportunity was not neglected. 

2. In considering the extent and character of the influence exer¬ 
cised by these religious ruling ideas of Egypt and Babylonia, we pass 
over to the second element in the bequest of the dead religions to the 
living, the direct contributions made by the former to the latter. The 
subject requires careful discrimination. Not a few scholars have 
gone far astray at this point in their treatment of religious systems. 
Formerly it was customary to find little that was original in any 
religion. All was borrowed. The tendency today is reactionary, and 
the originality of the great systems is exaggerated. There is no 
question as to the fact of the dependence of religions upon one 
another. The danger is, lest it be overlooked, that similar conditions 
in two religions may produce independently the same results. It 
must be recognized also that ancient nations held themselves more 
aloof from one another, and especially that religion as a matter of 
national tradition was much more conservative both in revealing itself 
to strangers and in accepting contributions from without. 


104 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


Yet the student of religion knows how, in one sense, every faith 
in the world has absorbed the life of a multitude of other local and 
limited cults. This is true of the sectarian religions of India. Islam 
swallowed the heathen worships of ancient Arabia. Many a shrine 
of Christianity is a transformation of a local altar of heathendom. 
There is no more important and no more intricate work lying in the 
sphere of comparative religion than an analysis of existing faiths with 
a view to the recovery of the bequests of preceding systems. While 
much has been done the errors and extravagances of scholars in many 
instances should teach caution. 

We must pass over a large portion of this great field. Attention 
should be called to the wide range of materials in the realm of Chris¬ 
tianity alone. To her treasury the bequests of usage and ritual have 
come from all the dead past. From Teutonic and Celtic faiths, from the 
cultus of Rome and the worship and thought of Greece contributions 
can still be pointed out in the complex structure. Christian scholars 
have done splendid work in tracing out these remains. I need but refer 
to the labors of Dr. Hatch and Professor Harnack upon the relations 
of Christianity to Greece and those of the eminent P'rench scholar, 
the late Ernest Renan, in the investigation of Christianity’s debt to 
Rome, as instances of the richness of the field and the importance of 
the results. A more limited illustration which is also in continuation 
of the line of thought already followed may be shown in the in¬ 
fluence of the religions of Egypt and Assyrio-Babylonia upon living 
faiths, or more exactly the connection of their leading ideas with the 
doctrines of Judaism and Christianity. 

The religious ideas of Egypt seem to have spread westward and 
to have had their greatest influence upon Greece. It has been the 
fashion to deny utterly the dependence of Greece upon Egypt in ‘re¬ 
spect to religion, but it cannot be denied that the trend of recent dis¬ 
coveries in archaeology leads to the opposite conclusion. We must 
emphasize the fact that every people contributes far more to its own 
system of religious belief than it borrows from without. Yet Greece 
herself acknowledged her debt in this matter to the land of the Nile 
and there is no real reason to deny her own testimony. It is striking 
to observe how the fundamental Egyptian notions of the sufficiency of 
the present life and the nearness of the divine reveal themselves in 
Hellas. The Greek conceived these ideas, indeed, in a far higher 
fashion. Harmony and beauty were the touchstones by which he 
tested the world and found it good. The grotesqueness of the 
Egyptian forms yielded to the grace of the Athenian creations of art 
and religion, but beneath them was the same thought. In man and 
his works the Greek found the ideal of the divine, and to him we owe 
the transformation of the doctrine of the divine nearness into’ that of 
God’s immanence. 

Egypt’s influence in the east was cut off early after her period of 
conquest by the rise of the Hittite empire. It is difficult to see any 
traces of her doctrine in the religions of western Asia, unless it be 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE IVOR LI). 


105 


that of Phoenicia. But with one people, at a later period, it would 
seem probable that her religious ideas would find lodgment. For a 
number of years, if Israelitish traditions are to be trusted, the Hebrews 
were under Egyptian domination, and the formation of their nation 
and their religious system dates from their deliverance from this bond¬ 
age. Did they not borrow from the well-organized and imposing 
religious system of their captors? Could they avoid doing so? The 
evidences of any such borrowing are not easy to discover. Either 
they have been carefully removed by later ages or another and more 
powerful influence has obliterated them. It is also to be remembered 
that the feeling excited in Israel by the rigors of Egyptian slavery was 
one of repulsion and abhorrence of everything Egyptian. It is more 
probable, therefore, that the influence of the religion of Egypt upon 
Israel was a negative one and that the foundations of her social and 
religious institutions were laid in a spirit of separation from what was 
characteristic of her oppressor. 

This negative influence, beginning thus in the birth of the nation 
and continuing through several centuries in the relations of the two 
peoples, was in its formative power over Hebrew religion second only 
to that which was positively exercised by another religious system, 
viz., that of Assyrio Babylonia, to which we now turn. 

There were three great periods in which the Hebrews came into 
close relations with their neighbor on the Tigris and Euphrates. The 
first was that represented by the tradition respecting Abraham. He 
came from Ur of the Chaldees with the doctrine of the true God. The 
circumstances which moved him to depart from that center of the 
world’s civilization are not clear to us, but the tradition gives no hint of 
hostile relations such as occasioned Israel’s departure from Egypt. It 
was here, therefore, that he came in contact with those elevated ideas 
of the divine transcendence which are characteristic alike of the relig¬ 
ion of Babylonia and in a higher and purer degree of the religion of 
Israel. Can he have gained his first perception of this truth from the 
Babylonians? It is not improbable. It is certainly true that a mighty 
impetus was given to this doctrine in Israel by this earliest contact 
with Babylonian life. 

The third of these periods was the Babylonian captivity. Many 
scholars are inclined to assign to this time a large number of acquisi¬ 
tions by Israel in the field of Babylonian religion, such as the early 
traditions of the creation and the deluge. But they forget that the 
same feeling which led Israel to reject all the attractions of Egypt 
would be equally aroused against Babylon, in whose cruel grasp they 
found themselves held fast. 

It is in the second period, that of the Assyrian conquest of west¬ 
ern Asia, that Israel came most fully under the influence of the relig¬ 
ion and the religious ideas of the Babylonians. Both Israel and 
Assyria had developed a religious system, though Assyria was far in 
advance of Israel in this respect. Heir of Babylon’s civilization and 
religion Assyria had advanced a step beyond her ancestral faith. In 





Joseph Makes Himself Hnown to his Brethren. 





























































































































































































































































































































































♦ 107 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the God Ashur the nation worked out a conception of a national God, 
before whom the other deities of the pantheon took subordinate posi¬ 
tions. Without denying the divine transcendence, Assyria moved in 
the direction of monotheism. A God of majesty, he was also con¬ 
ceived in the Assyrian style as a God of justice, whose law, though but 
slightly tinged with ethical ideas as we hold them, must be obeyed. 

The Hebrew conception-of Jahveh had also been fashioned in the 
struggle after nationality. It was a conception born out of the very 
heart of the nation' divinely moved upon by the true God. It did not 
owe its origin to Egypt or Assyrio-Babylonia. But we cannot fail to 
observe how the note of divine transcendence, the majesty of Jehovah, 
was ever kept clear in the minds of the Hebrew nation from the two 
opposite influences—the negative force of Egypt’s contrary doctrine 
and the positive power of the Assyrio-Babylonian religious system as 
conceived by the Assyrian empire. They were ever present and im¬ 
pressive examples throughout the centuries of Israelitish history. 

Under this supporting influence Israel took the one higher step 
which remained to be taken. Moved forward by the irresistible im¬ 
pulse thus outwardly and inwardly felt, the prophets released Israel’s 
God from the fetters of nationality and from the bonds of a selfish 
morality and preached the doctrine of a transcendent righteous God 
of all the earth. 

Thus these two elemental truths about God have been conveyed 
from Egypt and from Babylonia to the nations of men. They have 
come to be together the possession of Christianity. The doctrine of 
the divine transcendence is the gift of Judaism to the Christian church, 
and Christian theology has wrought it out into complex and impress¬ 
ive systems of truth. The truth of the divine immanence early found 
its place in the hearts and minds of the believers. It is noticeable that 
the scene of its sway, if not of its Christian origin, was the city of 
Alexandria. The place where Greek and Egyptian met was the home 
of this Graeco-Egyptian doctrine which the Alexandrian fathers 
wrought into the Christian system, and which is today beginning to 
claim that share in the system which its complementary truth has 
seemed to usurp. The religions which flourished and passed away 
have in this way contributed to the fundamentals of Christian theism. 

The preceding discussion has unavoidably encroached upon the 
ground of the third line of inquiry, namely, What have the dead 
religions afforded to the living in their history? What instruction do 
their life and death give as to the success or failure of religious sys¬ 
tems? Two a-priori theories occupy the field as explanations of these 
religions. First, they are regarded as teaching the blindness of man 
in his search after God, and the falsity of humanly constructed systems 
apart from special divine revelation. The dead religions perished 
because they were false, the production either of Satan or of deluded 
or designing men. The second theory holds these religions to be 
steps in the progressive evolution of the religious life of humanity, 
>assing through well-defined and philosophically arranged stages, 


108 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


each justifiable in its own circumstances, each a preparation for some¬ 
thing higher. 

Both views are inadequate because they do not include all the 
facts. What is needed in the study of religion today more than any¬ 
thing else is a study of the manifold facts which religions present and 
a rigid abstinence from philosophical theories which find facts to suit 
themselves. 

One great excellence of this parliament is that it brings us face to 
face with these facts. These brief sessions will do more for the study 
of religion than the philosophizing of a score of years. No religion 
in the totality and complexity of its phenomena is wholly false or 
wholly true. The death of a religion is not always an evidence of its 
decay and corruption, its inadequacy to meet the wants of men. There 
are certain phases of living religious life which every sane man would 
prefer to see removed and their place supplied by the doctrine and 
practice of some dead religions. In the search for the laws of relig¬ 
ious life and the results of religious activity, the dead religions are 
particularly valuable because of what these laws and forces have in 
them worked out to the end. They have formed a completed struc¬ 
ture or produced a ruin, both of which disclose with equal fidelity and 
equal adequacy the working of invariable and irresistible law. 

Generalizations on these phenomena, if correctly made, have a 
satisfying quality and a validity which afford a basis for instruction 
and guidance. Thus these religions themselves constitute what may 
be after all their most valuable bequest, and as such they have a peculiar 
interest for the student of religion. 

The proofs of this statement throng in upon us and we can select 
but a few. Among the problems of present religious life, that of the 
relations of church and state receive light from these dead religions. 
In antiquity these relations consisted in almost complete identification 
of the two organisms. Most frequently the church existed for the 
state, its servant, its slave. The results were most disastrous to both 
parties, but religion especially suffered. Its priesthoods either became 
filled with ambitious designs upon the state as in Egypt, or fell into 
the position of subserviency and weakness as in Babylon and Assyria, 
Rome and Greece. 

The aims and ends of truth were narrowed and trimmed to fit 
imperfect social conditions, and the fate of religion was bound up with 
the success or failure or a political policy. The destruction of the 
nation meant the disappearance of the religion. Assyria dragged into 
her grave the religion which she professed. A similar fate attended 
many of the cults of Semitic antiquity through the conquests of the 
great world empires which dominated western Asia. The finished 
experience of these dead faiths, therefore, speaks clearly in favor of 
the separation of religion from the state. 

Another problem which they enlighten is that of religious unity 
and the consequent futuie of religious systems, the ultimate religion. 
Where these systems survived the ruin of the nationality on which 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


109 


they depended, they met their death through a mightier religious 
force. The most brilliant example of this phenomenon is the conflict of 
Christianity with the religions of the ancient world. Christianity’s 
victory was achieved without force of arms. Was it merely that its 
foes were moribund that the religious forces of antiquity had all but 
lost their power? This is not by any means all the truth. I cannot 
glory in the victory of a Christianity over decaying religions that 
would have died of themselves if only left alone, but I am proud of 
her power in that when “the fullness of the times” was come, when 
Egypt and Syria, Judea, Greece and Rome offered to the world their 
best, she was able to take all their truths into her genial grasp and 
incarnating them in Jesus Christ make them in Him the beginning of 
a new age, the starting point of a higher evolution. 

These religions were crippled by their essential character. They 
had no real unity of thought. Their principle of organization was the 
inclusion of local cults, not the establishment of a great idea. There 
was broad toleration in the ancient religious world, both of forms and 
ideas, but the toleration of ideas existed because of the want of a 
clear thought basis of religion, or, to speak more precisely, the want 
of a theology. With the absence of this the multiplicity of forms 
produced a meaningless confusion. Even where each of these systems 
reveals to us the presence of a common idea traceable through all its 
forms this one idea is only a phase of the truth. 

Assyria’s doctrine of the divine transcendence and Egypt’s view 
of the divine nearness and Greece’s tenet of the divineness of man or 
the humaneness of God, were valid religious ideas, but each was partial. 
These religions, so inclusive of forms, could not include or comprehend 
more than their own favorite idea. But when Christianity came 
against them with a well-rounded theology, a central truth like that of 
the incarnation, a truth and a life which not merely included, but 
reconciled all elements of the world’s religious progress, none of these 
ancient systems could stand before it. 

They seem to tell us that the true test of a religious system is the 
measure in which it is filled with God. So far as they saw Him they 
led men to find help and peace in Him. They proclaimed His law, 
they sought to assure to men His favor. So far as they accomplished 
this, so far as they were filled with God, both as a doctrine and as a 
life, they fulfilled their part in the education and salvation of the 
human race. By that test they rose and fell; by that measure they 
take their place in the complex evolution of the world. And it was 
because they failed to rise to the height of Christianity’s comprehen¬ 
sion and absorption of God that they perished. 4 

We are sometimes inclined, amid the din of opposing creeds, to 
long for a religion without theology. These dead faiths warn us of 
the folly of any such dream. In the presence of a multitude of relig¬ 
ions, such as are represented in this parliament, we are tempted to 
believe that the ultimate religion will consist in a bouquet of the 
sweetest and choicest of them all. The graves of the dead religions 


110 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


declare that not selection but incorporation makes a religion strong; 
not incorporation but reconciliation, not reconciliation but the fulfill¬ 
ment of all these aspirations, these partial truths in a higher thought, 
in a transcendent life. 

The systems of religions here represented, or to come, which will 
not merely select but incorporate, not merely incorporate but recon¬ 
cile, not merely reconcile but fulfill, holds the religious future of 
humanity. 

Apart from particular problems these dead religions in clear tones 
give two precious testimonies. They bear witness to man’s need of 
God and man’s capacity to know Him. Looking back today upon the 
dead past, we behold men in the jungle and on the mountain, in the 
Roman temple and before the Celtic altar, lifting up holy hands of as¬ 
piration and petition to the divine. Sounding through Greek hymns 
and Babylonian psalms alike are heard human voices crying out after 
the eternal. 

But there is a nobler heritage of ours in these oldest of religions. 
The capacity to know God is not the knowledge of Him. - They tell 
us with one voice that the human heart, the universal human heart 
that needs God and can know Him was not left to search for Him 
in blindness and ignorance. He gave them of Himself. They receive 
the light which lighteth every man. That light has come down the 
ages unto us, shining as it comes with ever brighter beams of divine 
revelation. 

“For God who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake unto 
the fathers”—and we are, beginning to realize today, as never before, 
how many are our spiritual fathers in the past—“hath in these last days 
spoken unto us in the Son.” 



% 


T2 


The f\[eed of a ider (Conception 
of f^evelation, or Lessons from the 
Sacred 3°°ks of the World. 

Paper by Prof. J. ESTLIN CARPENTER, of Oxford. 


E congress which I have the honor to address 
in this paper is a unique assemblage. It could 
not have met before the nineteenth century, 
and no country in the world possesses the 
needful boldness of conception and organiz¬ 
ing energy save the United States of America. 
History does indeed record other endeavors 
to bring the religions of the world into line. 
The Christian fathers of the fourth century 
credited Demetrius Phalereus, the large- 
minded librarian of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
about 250 B. C., with the attempt to procure 
the sacred books, not only of the Jews, but 
also of the Ethiopians, Indians, Persians, 
Elamites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, 
Romans, Phoenicians, Syrians and Greeks. The great Emperor Akbar 
- (the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth) invited to his court Jews, 
Christians, Mohammedans, Brahmans and Zoroastrians. He listened 
to their discussions, he weighed their arguments, until (says one of 
the native historians) there grew gradually as the outline on a stone 
the conviction in his heart that there were sensible men in all relig¬ 
ions. Different indeed is this from the court condemnation by the 
English lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, who said a hundred years 
ago: “There are two objects of curiosity—the Christian world and the 
Mohammedan world; all the rest maybe considered barbarous.” This 
congress meets, I trust, in the spirit of that wise old man who wrote: 
“One is born a Pagan, another a Jew, a third a Mussulman. The true 
philosopher sees in each a fellow seeking after God.” With this con¬ 
viction of the sympathy of religions, I offer some remarks founded on 
the study of the world’s sacred books. 





Moses 


* 























THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


113 


I will not stop to define a sacred book, or distinguish it from 
those which, like the “Imitatio Christi,” the “Theo'logia Germanica,” 
or “Pilgrim’s Progress,’’ have deeply influenced Christian thought or 
feeling. It is enough to observe that the significance of great collec¬ 
tions of religious literature cannot be overestimated. As soon as a 
faith produces a scripture, i. e ., a book invested with legal or other 
authority, no matter on how lowly a scale, it at once acquires an ele¬ 
ment of permanence. Such permanence has both advantages and dan¬ 
gers. First of all, it provides the great sustenance for religious affec¬ 
tion; it protects a young and growing religion from too rapid change 
through contact with foreign influences; it settles a base for future in¬ 
ternal development; it secures a certain stability; it fixes a standard 
of belief, consolidates the moral type. 

It has been sometimes argued that if the Gospels had never been 
written, the Christian church which existed for a generation ere they 
were composed, would still have transmitted its orders and administered 
its sacraments, and lived on by its great tradition. But where would ' 
have been the image of Jesus enshrined in these brief records? How 
could it have sunk into the heart of nations and served as the impulse 
and the goal of endeavor, unexhausted in Christendom after eighteen 
centuries? The diversity of the religions of Greece, their tendency to 
pass into one another, the ease with which new cults obtained a foot¬ 
ing in Rome, the decline of any vital faith during the last days of the 
republic, supply abundant illustrations of the religious weakness of a 
nation without scriptures. On the other hand, the dangers are obvious. 
The letter takes the place of the spirit, the transitory is confused with 
the permanent, the occasional is made universal, the local and tem¬ 
poral is erected into the everlasting and absolute. 

The sacred book is indispensable for the missionary religion. 
Even Judaism, imperfect as was its development in this direction, dis¬ 
covered this as the Greek version of the seventy made its way along 
the Mediterranean. Take the Koran from Islam, and where would 
have been its conquering power? Read the records of the heroic 
labors of the Buddhist missionaries and of the devoted toil of 
the Chinese pilgrims to India in search of copies of the holy books; 
you may be at a loss to understand the enthusiasm with which they 
gave their lives to the reproduction of the teachings of the Great Mas¬ 
ter; you will see how clear and immediate was the perception that the 
diffusion of the new religion depended on the translation of its scriptures. 

And now, one after another, our age has witnessed the resurrection 
of ancient literatures. Philology has put the key of language into our 
hands. Shrine after shrine in the world’s great temple has been 
entered; the songs of praise, the commands of law, the litanies of peni¬ 
tence, have been fetched from the tombs of the Nile or the mounds 
of Mesopotamia, or the sanctuaries of the Ganges. The Bible of hu¬ 
manity has been recorded. What will it teach us? I desire to suggest 
to this congress that it brings home the need of a conception ot reve¬ 
lation unconfined to any particular religion, but capable of application 

8 


114 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


in diverse modes to all. Suffer me to illustrate this very briefly under 
three heads: First, ideas of ethics; second, ideas of inspiration; third, 
ideas of incarnation. 

The sacred books of the world are necessarily varied in character 
and contents. Yet no group of scriptures fails to recognize, in the 
long run, the supreme importance of conduct. Here is that which, in 
the control of action, speech and thought, is of the highest signifi¬ 
cance for life. This consciousness sometimes lights up even the most 
arid wastes of sacrificial detail. 

All nations do not pass through the same stages of moral evolu¬ 
tion within the same periods, or mark them by the same crises. The 
development of one is slower, of another more swift. One people 
seems to remain stationary for millenniums, another advances with each 
century But in so far as they have both consciously reached the same 
moral relations and attained the same insight, the ethical truth which 
they have gained has the same validity. Enter an Egyptian tomb of 
the century of Moses’ birth and you will find that the soul, as it came 
before the judges in the other world, was summoned to declare its in¬ 
nocence in such words as these: “I am not a doer of what is wrong, I 
am not a robber, I am not a murderer, I am not a liar, I am not un¬ 
chaste, I am not the causer of others’ tears.” Is the standard of duty 
here implied less noble than that of the decalogue? Are we to depress 
the one as human and exalt the other as divine? More than five hun¬ 
dred years before Christ the Chinese sage, Lao Tsze, bade his disciples, 
“Recompense injury with kindness,” and at the same great era, faithful 
in noble utterance, Gautama, the Buddha, said, “Let man overcome 
anger by liberality and the liar by truth.” Is this less a revelation of 
a higher ideal than the injunction of Jesus, “Resist not evil, but who¬ 
soever smiteth thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also?” 
The fact surely is that we cannot draw any partition line through the 
phenomena of the moral life and affirm that on one side lie the gen¬ 
eralizations of earthly reasons and on the other the declarations of 
heavenly truth. The utterances in which the heart of man has em¬ 
bodied its glimpses of the higher vision are not all of equal merit, but 
they must be explained in the same way. The moralists of the flowery 
land, even before Confucius, were not slow to perceive this, though 
they could not apply it over so wide a range as that now open to us. 
Heaven in giving birth to the multitudes of the people to every faculty 
and relationship affixed its law. The people possess this normal virtue. 

In the ancient records gathered up in the Shu King, the Duke of 
Chow related how Hea would not follow the leading of Shang Ti, 
supreme ruler from God. “In the daily business of life and the most 
common actions,” wrote the commentator, “we feel, as it were, an 
influence exeited on the intelligence, the emotions and the heart. 
Even the most stupid are not without their gleams of light.” This is 
the leading idea of Ti, and there is no place where it is not felt. 
Modern ethical theory, in the forms which it has assumed at the hands 
of Butler, Kant and Martineau, recognizes this element. Its relation 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


115 


to the whole philosophy of religion will no doubt be discussed by 
other speakers at this congress. 

Suffer me in brief to state my conviction that the authority of con¬ 
science only receives its full explanation when it is admitted that that 
difference which we designate in forms of “higher” and “lower” is not 
of our own making. It issues forth from our own nature because it 
has been first implanted within it. It is a speech to our souls of a 
loftier voice, growing clearer and more articulate as thought grows 
wider and feeling more pure. It is, in fact, the witness of God within 
us; it is the self-manifestation of His righteousness, so that in the com¬ 
mon terms of universal moral experience lies the first and broadest ele¬ 
ment of Revelation. But may we not apply the same tests, the worth of 
belief, the genuineness of feeling, to more special cases? If the divine 
life shows itself forth in the development of conscience, may it not be 
traced also in the slow rise of a nation’s thought of God, or in the 
swifter response of nobler minds to the appeal of heaven? The fact 
is, that man is so conscious of his weakness that in his earlier days all 
higher knowledge, the gifts of language and letters, the discovery of 
the crafts, the inventions of civilization, poetry and song, art, law, phi¬ 
losophy, bear about them the stamp of the superhuman. “From thee,” 
sang Pindar (nearest of Greeks to Hebrew prophecy), “cometh all high 
excellence to mortals.” Such love is, in fact, the teaching of the 
unseen, the manifestation of the infinite in our mortal ken. If this 
conception of providential guidance be true in the broad sphere of 
human intelligence, does it cease to be true in the realm of religious 
thought? Read one of the Egyptian hymns laid in the believer’s cof¬ 
fin ere Moses was born: 

“ Praise to Amen-Ra, the good God beloved, the ancient of heavens, 
the oldest of the earth, Lord of Eternity, Maker Everlasting. He is 
the Causer of pleasure and light, Maker of grass for the cattle and of 
fruitful trees for man, causing the fish to live in the river and the birds 
to fill the air, lying awake when all men sleep to seek out the good of 
His creatures. We worship Thy spirit whoaione hast made us; we, whom 
Thou has made, thank Thee that Thou hast given us birth; we give Thee 
praises for Thy mercy to us.” 

Is this less inspired than a Hebrew psalm? Study that antique 
record of all the Zarathustra in the Gathas, which all scholars receive 
as the oldest part of the Zend Avesta. Does it not rest on a religious 
experience similar in kind to that of Isaiah? 

Theologies may be many, but religion is but one. It was after this 
that the Vedic seers were groping when they looked at the varied wor¬ 
ship around them and cried: “they call Him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, 
Agni; sages name variously Him who is but one;” or again, “the sages 
in their hymns give many forms to Him who is but one.” It was this 
essential fact with which the early Christians were confronted as they 
saw that the Greek poets and philosophers had reached truths about 
the being of God not at all unlike those of Moses and the prophets. 
Their solution was worthy of the freedom and universality of the spirit of 


116 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Jesus. They were for recognizing and welcoming truth wherever they 
found it, and they referred it without hesitation to the ultimate souice 
of wisdom and knowledge, the Logos, at once the minor thought and 
the uttered word of God. I he martyr Justin affirmed that the Logos 
had worked through Socrates, as it had been present in Jesus; nay, with 
a wider outlook he spoke of the seed of the Logos implanted in every 
race of man. In virtue of this fellowship, therefore, all truth was rev¬ 
elation and akin to Christ Himself. “Whatsoever things were said 
among all men are the property of us Christians.” lhe Alexandrian 
teachers shared the same conception. The divine intelligence per¬ 
vaded human life and history and showed itself in all that was best in 
beauty, goodness, truth. The way of truth was like a mighty river ever 
flowing, and as it passed it was ever receiving fresh streams on this side 
and that. Nay, so clear in Clement’s view was the work of Greek phi¬ 
losophy that he not only regarded it like Law and Gospel as a gift of 
God, it was an actual covenant as much as that of Sinai, possessed of 
its own justifying power, or following the great generalization of St. 
Paul. The law was a tutor to bring the Jews to Christ. Clement added 
that philosophy wrought the same heaven-appointed service for the 
Greeks. May we not use the same great conception over other fields 
of the history of religion? “In all ages,” affirmed the author of the 
wisdom of Solomon, “wisdom entering into holy souls maketh them 
friends of God and prophets.” So we may claim in its widest applica¬ 
tion the saying of Mohammed: “Every nation has a creator of the 
heavens—to which they turn in prayer—it is God who turneth them 
toward it. Hasten, then, emulously after good wheresoever ye be. 
God will one day bring you all together.” 

We shall no longer, then, speak like a distinguished Oxford pro¬ 
fessor of the three chief false religions—Brahmanism, Buddhism, 
Islam. In so far as the soul discerns God, the reverence, adoration, 
trust, which constitute the moral and spiritual elements of its faith, 
are in fact identical through every variety of creed. They may be 
more or less clearly articulate, less or more crude and confused, or 
pure and elevated, but they are in substance the same. 

“In the adoration and benedictions of righteous men,” said the 
poet of the Masnavi-i-Manavi, “the praises are mingled into one 
stream; all the vessels are emptied into one ewer; because He that is 
praised is in fact only one.” In this respect all religions are only one 
religion. Can the same thought be carried one step farther? If in¬ 
spiration be a world-wide process unconfined by specific limits of one 
people, or one book, may the same be said of the idea of incarnation? 
Hie conception of incarnation has many forms, and in different theol¬ 
ogies serves various ends. But they all possess one feature in common. 
Among the functions of the manifestation of the divine man is instruc¬ 
tion; his life is in some sense or other a mode of revelation. Study the 
various legends belonging to Central America, of which the beautiful 
story of the Mexican Quetzalcoatl may be taken as a type—the virgin 
born who inaugurates a reign of peace, who establishes arts, institutes 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


117 


beneficent laws, abolishes all human and animal sacrifices and sup¬ 
presses war—they all revolve around the idea of disclosing among 
men a higher life of wisdom and righteousness and love, which is in truth 
an unveiling of heaven. Or, consider a much more highly developed 
type, that of the Buddhas in theistic Buddhism, as the manifestation 
of the self-existent, everlasting God. Not once only did He leave His 
heavenly home to become incarnate in His mother’s womb. 

“ Repeatedly am I born in the land of the living. And what reason 
should I have to manifest myself? When men have become unwise, 
unbelieving, ignorant, careless, then I, who know the course of the 
world, declare, ‘I am so-and-so,’ and consider how I can incline them to 
enlightenment, how they can become partakers of the Buddha nature.” 

To become partakers of the divine nature is the goal also of the 
Christian believer. But may it not be stated as already implicitly a 
present fact? When St. Paul quoted the words of Aratus on Mars 
Hill, “ For we also are His offspring,” did he not recognize the sonship 
of man to God as a universal truth? Was not this the meaning of 
Jesus when He bade His followers pray, “Our Father who art in 
heaven?” Once more Greek wisdom may supply us with a form for 
our thought. The Logos of God which became flesh and dwelt in Christ, 
wrought, so Justin tells us, in Socrates as well. Was its purpose or 
effect limited to those two? Is there not a sense in which it appears 
in all men? If there is a true light which lighteneth every man that 
cometh into the world, will not every man, as he lives by the light, 
himself also show forth God? The Word of God is not of single ap¬ 
plication. It is boundless, unlimited. For each man as he enters into 
being, there is an idea in the divine mind—may we not say in our poor 
human fashion?—of what God means him to be; that dwells in every 
soul, and realizing itself, not in conduct only, but in each several high¬ 
est forms of human endeavor. It is the fountain of all lofty thought, 
it utters itself through the creations of beauty in poetry and art, it 
prompts the investigation of science, it guides the inquiries of phi¬ 
losophy. There are so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind 
is without signification. So many voices! So many words! Each soul 
a fresh word with a new destiny conceived for it by God, to be some¬ 
thing which none that has preceded has ever been before; to show 
forth some purpose of the divine Being just then and there which none 
else could make known. 

Thus conceived, the history of religion gathers up into itself the 
history of human thought and life. It becomes the story of God’s 
continual revelation to our race. However much we may mar or frus¬ 
trate it, in this revelation each one of us may have part. Its forms 
may change from age to age; its institutions may rise and fall; its 
rights and usages may grow and decline. These are the temporary, 
the local, the accidental; they are not the essence which abides. To 
realize the sympathy of religions is the first step toward grasping this 
o-reat thought. May this congress, with its noble representation of so 
many faiths, hasten the day of mutual understanding when God, by 
whatever name we hallow Him, shall be all in all. 


















V. 

SHINTOISM. 


* 







5hintoism. 

By Rt. Rev. REUCHI SHIBATA, President of the Thikko Sect of Shintoism 

in Japan. 



FEEL very happy to be able to attend this 
Congress of Religions as a member of the ad¬ 
visory council and to hear the high reasonings 
and profound opinions of the gentlemen who 
come from various countries of the world. As 
for me it will be my proper task to explain the 
character of Shintoism, and especially of my 
Jikko sect. 

The word Shinto or Kami-no-michi, comes 
from the two words “Shin” or “Kami,” each of 
which means Deity, and “to” or “michi” (way), 
and designates the way transmitted to us from 
our divine ancestors and in which every Jap¬ 
anese is bound to walk. Having its foundation 
l | in our old history, conforming to our geograpical 
f I positions and the disposition of our people, this 
way, as old as Japan itself, came down to us with its original form and 
will last forever, inseparable from the Eternal Imperial House and 
the Japanese nationality. 

According to our ancient scriptures theie were a generation of 
Kami or deities in the beginning who created the heavens and the 
earth together with all things, including human beings, and became 
the ancestors of the Japanese. 

Jimmu-tenno, the grandson of Ninigi-no-Mikoto, was the first of 
the human emperors. Having brought the whole land under one rule 
he performed great services to the divine ancestors, cherished his sub¬ 
jects and thus discharged his great filial duty, as did all the emperors 
after him. So also all the subjects were deep in their respect and 
adoration toward the divine ancestors and the emperors, their descend¬ 
ants. Though in the course of time various doctrines and creeds were 
introduced into the country, Confucianism in the reign of the fifteenth 
emperor, Ojin, Buddhism in the reign of the twenty-ninth emperor, 
Kimmei, and Christianity in modern times, the emperors and the sub¬ 
jects never neglected the great duty of Shinto. The present forms of 

121 



122 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


ceremony are come down to us from time immemorial in our history. 
Of the three divine treasures transmitted from the divine ancestors, the 
divine gem is still held sacred in the imperial palace, the divine mirror 
in the great temple of Iso, and the divine sword in the temple of 
Atsuta, in the province of Owari. To this day his majesty, the 
emperor, performs himself the ceremony of worship to the divine 
ancestors, and all the subjects perform the same to the deities of 
temples, which are called, according to the local extent of the 
festivity, the national, the provincial, the local and the birth-place 
temple. When the festival day of temples, especially of the birth¬ 
place, etc., comes, all people who, living in the place, are, considered 
specially protected by the deity of the temple have a holiday and 
unite in performing the ancient ritual of worship and praying for the 
perpetuity of the imperial line and for profound peace over the land 
and families. The deities dedicated to the temple are divine imperial 
ancestors, illustrious loyalists, benefactors to the place, etc. Indeed, 
the Shinto is a beautiful cultus peculiar to our native land and is con¬ 
sidered the foundation of the perpetuity of the imperial house, the 
loyalty of the subjects, and the stability of the Japanese state. 

Thus far I have given a short description of Shinto, which is the 
way in which every Japanese, no matter to what creed—even Bud¬ 
dhism, Christianity, etc.—he belongs, must walk. Let me explain 
briefly the nature and origin of a religious force of Shinto, i. e., of the 
Jikko sect, whose tenets I profess to believe. 

TheThikko (practical) sect, as the name indicates, does not lay 
so much stress upon mere show and speculation as upon the realiza¬ 
tion of the teachings. Its doctrines are plain and simple and teach 
man to do man’s proper work. Being a new sect, it is free from the 
old dogmas and prejudices, and is regarded as a reformed sect. The 
scriptures on which the principal teachings of the sect are founded are 
Furukotobumi, Yamatobumi, and many others. They teach us that 
before heaven and earth came into existence there was one Absolute 
Deity called Amenominakanushi-no-kami. He has great virtue, and 
power to create to reign over all things, He includes everything within 
Himself, and He will last forever without end. In the beginning the 
One Deity, self-originated, took the embodiment: ot two Deities—one 
with the male nature and the other female The male Deity is called 
Takai-musibi-no-kami, and the female Kami-musubi-no-kami. These 
two Deities are nothing but forms of the one substance and unite again 
in the Absolute Deity. These three are called the “Three Deities of 
Creation. They caused a generation of Deities to appear, who, in 
their turn, gave birth to the islands of the Japanese Archipelago, the 
sun and moon, the mountains and streams, the divine ancestors, etc., 
etc. oo their viitue and power are esteemed wondrous and boundless. 

According to the teachings of our sect we ought to reverence the 
famous mountain Fuji, assuming it to be the sacred abode of the 
Divine Loid, and as the biain of the whole globe. And as every child 
of the Heavenly Deity came into the world with a soul separated from 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


123 


the one original soul of Deity, he ought to be just as the Deity ordered 
(in sacred Japanese “kanngara”) and make Fuji the example and 
emblem of his thought and action. For instance, he must be plain and 
simple as the form of the mountain, make his body and mind pure 
as the serenity of the same, etc. VVe would respect the present world, 
with all its practical works, more than the future world; pray for the 
long life of the emperor and the peace of the country; and by leading 
a life of temperance and diligence, co-operating with one another in 
doing public good, we should be responsible for the blessings of the 
country. 

The founder of this sect is Hasegawa Kakugyo, who was born in 
Nagasaki, of the Hizen province, in 1541. In the eighteenth year of 
his age, Hasegawa, full of grief at the gloomy state of things over the 
country, set out on a pilgrimage to various sanctuaries of famous 
mountains and lakes, Shintoistic and Buddhistic temples. While he 
was offering fervent prayers on sacred Fuji, sometimes its summit and 
sometimes within its cave, he received inspiration through the mirac¬ 
ulous power of the mountain; and becoming convinced that this place 
is the holy abode of Ameno-mina-kanu-shi-no-kima, he founded a new 
sect and propagated the creed all over the empire. 

After his death in the cave, in his 106th year, the light of the 
doctrines was handed down by a series of teachers. The tenth of them 
was my father, Shibata.Hanamori, born at Ogi, of the Hizen province, 
in 1809. He was also in the eighteenth year of his age when he 
adopted the doctrine of this sect. Amid the revolutionary war of 
Meiji, which followed immediately, he exerted all his power to prop¬ 
agate his faith by writing religious works and preaching about the 
provinces. 

Now I have given a short sketch of the doctrines of our religion 
and of its history. In the next place, let me express the humble views 
that I have had for some years on religion. 

As our doctrines teach us, all animate and inanimate things were 
born from One Heavenly Deity, and every one of them has its partic¬ 
ular mission; so we ought to love them all, and also to respect the 
various forms of religions in the world. They are all based, I believe, 
on the fundamental truth of religion. The difference between them is 
only in the outward form, influenced by variety of history, the dispo¬ 
sition of the people and the physical conditions of the places where 
they originated. 

Lastly, there is one more thought that I wish to offer here. While 
it is the will of Deity and the aim of all religionists that all His beloved 
children on the earth should enjoy peace and comfort in one accord, 
many countries look still with envy and hatred toward one another, 
and appear to seek opportunities of making war under the slightest 
pretext, with no other aim than of wringing out ransoms or robbing a 
nation of its lands. Thus, regardless of the abhorrence of the Heavenly 
Deity, they only inflict pain and calamity on innocent people. Now 
and here my earnest wish is this, that the time should come soon when 


124 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


all nations on the earth will join their armies and navies with one 
accord, guarding the world as a whole, and thus prevent preposterous 
wars with each other. They should also establish a supreme court, in 
order to decide the case when a difference arises between them. In 
that state no nation will receive unjust treatment from another, and 
every nation and every individual will be able to maintain their own 
right and enjoy the blessings of Providence. 

There will thus ensue, at last, the universal peace and tranquillity 
which seem to be the final object of the benevolent Deity. 

For many years such has been my wish and hope. In order to 
facilitate and realize this in the future, I earnestly plead that every 
religionist of the world may try to edify the nearest people to devo¬ 
tion, to root out enmity between nations, and to promote our common 
object. 

Shintoism [Chinese, the way of the gods.]—The religious belief 
of the people of Japan, prior to the introduction of Buddhism from 
Corea in A. D. 552. The new belief almost entirely absorbed the old, 
being, however, itself modified in the process. Shinto possesses no 
moral code. Motoori (1730-1801) maintained that the will of the 
Mikado was the criterion of right and wrong. Shinto holds the 
Mikado to be the direct descendant and representative of the Sun-god¬ 
dess; has associated with it a system of hero worship, and attributes 
spiritual agencies to the powers of nature. 





VL 

HINDUISM. 






Brahmanism, Hinduism. 


HE system of religious belief and practice 
introduced and propagated by the Brahmans 
greatly varied with the lapse of ages, but to 
every successive form of it the name Brahman¬ 
ism may be applied. 

The earliest inhabitants of India seem to 
have been mainly Turanians. When, at a very 
remote period of antiquity, these entered the 
peninsula, an Aryan nation or tribe existed in 
Central Asia, northwest of India, speaking a 
language as yet unrecognized, which was the 
parent of nearly all the present European 
tongues, our own not excepted. At an unknown 
date a great part of this Aryan nation migrated 
to the northwest and settled in Europe, the 
remainder taking the contrary direction, and entering India by the 
way of the Punjaub. Admiring the glorious eastern sky, they applied 
to it and to the elements of nature glowing adjectival epithets. These 
gradually became abstract substantives, then the qualities expressed 
were personified, and gods ruling over the several elements were 
recognized. Thus the sky was first called Deva, adj.—(i) bright, then 
(2) brightness, next (3) the Bright God; or, if the adjectival meaning 
be retained, Divine. This is the familiar Lat. Deus=God. Similarly 
Dyaus— the sky, is Gr. Zeus , genit. Dios, from Dis, Latin Dies piter= 
Jupiter. Other divinities worshiped were, Agni= fire (Lat. ignis), Surya 
=the sun, Ushas= the dawn (Gr. eos.) Marut= storm (Lat. Mars), 
Prithivi=\hz earth, Ap= the waters, Nadi=\h.Q rivers, Varuna— the sky 
(Gr. ouranos), Mitra=t\\z sun, and Indra— the day. These gods are 
invoked in the 1,017 hymns of the Rig-Veda, the oldest Aryan book 
in the world. Dr. Haug, of the Sanscrit College at Poonah, thinks the 
oldest of these may have been composed and uttered from 2400 to 
2000 B. C., or at least from 2000 to 1400 B. C. Max Muller, the trans¬ 
lator of the Rig-Veda, more moderately dates most of them between 
1500 and 1200 B. C., believing the collection to have been finished 
about 1100 B. C. 

Whilst the Aryans were in the Punjaub a religious schism took 
place amongst them, and a large number of them left India for Persia, 
with feelings so bitter that what their former friends left behind called 

127 





Hindu Temple, Colombo, Ceylon. 

































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


129 


gods they transformed into demons. The venerable Deva= God, was 
changed into deava= an evil spirit. Iran (Persia) was the place to 
which the seceders went, and there their faith developed into Zoroas¬ 
trianism. 

The Rig-Veda was followed by three more, the Yajur-veda , the 
Sama-veda , and the Atharva-veda, each with a Sanhit or collection 
written in poetry, and Brahmanas and Sutras, prose compositions; 
but these are not so valuable as the Rig- Veda for tracing the old 
beliefs. 

P'rom about iooo to 800 B. C. collections were being made of the 
old sacred literature. From about 800 to 600 B. C. the Brahmanas 
were composed (Dr. Haug thinks between 1400 and 1200 B.C.). Then 
the Sutras (exegetical compositions), which follow, make Brahmanas 
as well as Mantras divine. 

During the period of the Brahmanas, the Brahmanic priesthood 
had arisen to great power; during that of the Sutras they were in quiet 
enjoyment of their caste dignity. By the sixth century Buddha had 
arisen to preach the equality of all castes, and his system was domi¬ 
nant in India from about 250 B. C. till 750 A. D., that is, for a thou¬ 
sand years. 

When Brahmanism reasserted its sway the Hindoo triad of gods 
—Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva—had arisen. Nay, Brahma had become 
almost obsolete, and the respective advocates of Vishnu and Shiva 
were at variance. Between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries 
monastic reformers formed sects, some Vishnuvite, others Sivaite. 
New sacred books, called, however, Puranas (meaningold), are penned 
to advocate the tenets of conflicting sects, and, though contradicting 
each other, were accepted as divine. The Mohammedan invasion 
somewhat repressed their quarrels. At present, the worship of Vishnu 
under the forms of Krishna and of Rama, and of Siva under that of 
the Lingam with the veneration of Sukti, the power and energy of 
the divine nature in action; to which must be added the adoration of 
Hunooman, Rama’s friend; and in many places of aboriginal Turanian 
gods, are the most prevalent forms of popular Hinduism. Reformers 
are falling back on the Vedas, and Christianity obtains converts from 
it in every part of the land.— American Encyclopedic Dictionary . 

The Vedas, or Hindu Bible were written about 2000—1000 B. C. 
Prof. Monier Williams the great authority on the subject considers 
the Vedic Hymns as addressed to those physical forces before which 
all nations, if guided solely by the light of nature, have in the early 
period of their life instinctively bowed down, and before which even 
the more civilized and enlightened have always been compelled to 
bend in awe and reverence, if not in adoration. 

To our Aryan forefathers in their Asiatic home God’s power 
was exhibited in the forces of nature even more evidently than to 
ourselves. Lands, houses, flocks, herds, men, and animals were more 
frequently than in western climates at the mercy of winds, fire, and 
water, and the sun’s rays appeared to be endowed with a potency 
quite beyond the experience of any European country. We cannot 
9 


130 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


be surprised, then, that these forces were regarded by our eastern 
progenitors as actual manifestations, either of one deity in different 
moods or of separate rival deities contending for supremacy. Nor is 
it wonderful that these mighty agencies should have been at first 
poetically personified, and afterward, when invested with forms, attri¬ 
butes, and individuality, worshiped as distinct gods. It was only 
natural, too, that a varying supremacy and varying honors should 
have been accorded to each deified force—to the air, the rain, the 
storm, the sun, or fire—according to the special atmospheric influ¬ 
ences to which particular localities are exposed, or according to the 
seasons of the year when the dominance of each was to be prayed for 
or deprecated. 

The Hindu creed teaches: 

1. That souls in individuals, and the Supreme Soul, have existed 
everlastingly and will never cease from being. 

2. That matter, the substance of the universe, is without begin¬ 
ning and without end. 

3. That the soul dwells in an inward body and an outward body, 
the inward surviving with the soul when the outside body perishes. 

4. That the union of soul and body produces in men bondage 
for the soul and misery, the bodily senses bringing to the soul pain 
and pleasure. 

5. The result brings heaven or hell and a return to bodily exist¬ 
ence, as God, demon, man, animal, plant, or stone, according as one 
has lived. 

6. The transmigration of the soul is the root of all evil. By it 
the misery, inequality and diversity of character in the world are to 
be explained. 

7. A man should abstain from loving or hating, liking or dislik¬ 
ing, and seek to return to the “over soul” as a drop of water goes into 
the sea. 

The oldest Hindu sacred volume, or series of volumes, divided 
into four portions, are these: The Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the 
Yajur-Veda and the Atharva-Veda, often spoken of as separate Vedas. 
I he oldest is the Rig-Veda; then the Sama-Veda and the Yajur-Veda 
were composed, and after an interval the Atharva-Veda was added. 
They are in meter, consisting of hymns supposed to have been divinely 
revealed to certain Rishis or Brahmanical sages. With these were 
connected certain upanishads, speculative treatises. Then follow 
sutras (strings), consisting of short sentences strung together; but 
these, though founded on the Vedas, are admitted by the Brahmans 
to have been only of human origin. The Vedas were composed 
while theii Aiyan authors were fighting their way forward from the 
noithwestern boundaiy of India across the five rivers of the Punjaub 
onward to the Ganges. 

Rig-Veda. The oldest and most original of the four Vedas, and 
probably the oldest literary composition in the world. In all likeli¬ 
hood it was in course of composition about 1400 years B. C., but was 
not committed to writing at that time. It contains no allusion to 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


131 


writing or writing materials, and Max Muller believes that for a long 
period it was transmitted orally from generation to generation. It 
consists of 1,017 short lyrical poems, with 10,580 verses. The religion 
was nature worship, Indra, the Cloud-compeller, being the chief object 
of adoration, and, after him, Agni, the God of fire. The Hindu Triad 
had not yet arisen. The Rig-Veda does not recognize the institution 
of caste. Beef was eaten. Women held a high position, and some of 
the hymns were composed by them. The rite of suttee was unknown; 
the conquest of Indra had only begun, and the Ganges, incidentally 
mentioned, had not become a sacred stream. 

Purana.—The last great division of Hindu sacred literature. 
Eighteen principal Puranas are enumerated, called Brahma, Padma, 
Brahmanda, Agni, Vishnu, Garuda, Brahmavaivarta, Siva, Linga, 
Naradiya, Skanda, Markandeya, Bhavishyat, Matsya, Varaha, Kaurma, 
Vaman and Bhagavat. None of them is dated. Some quote from 
others, and the period of their redaction embraces perhaps a dozen 
centuries. In their present form none of them appears older than the 
ninth century A. D. The most celebrated are the Vishnu and the 
Bhagavat Puranas. They are full of legends relating to holy places 
and ceremonial rites, with minute fragments of history. Modern 
Hinduism is largely founded on these compositions, some of which 
are sectarian productions, advocating the claims of particular divini¬ 
ties to the disparagement of others. In addition to the eighteen prin¬ 
cipal Puranas, there are eighteen Upapuranas or secondary Puranas, 
enumerated by H. H. Wilson {Vishnu-Purana, Introd.), and these do 
not complete the list of Puranic literature. 

Juggernaut, juggernath, jagannath, jagnath.—One of the 1,000 
names of Vishnu, the second god of the Hindu triad. Jugger¬ 
naut is Vishnu, especially in his eighth incarnation, Krishna. The great 
seat of his worship is at Puri, in Orissa, where he is associated with 
his brother Balbhadra, Baldeo, or Balaram, and their sister Sabhadra. 
The idols have no legs, and only stumps of arms; the heads and eyes 
are very large. The two brothers have arms projecting horizontally 
from the ears. They are wooden busts of about six feet high. Bala¬ 
ram is painted white, Juggernaut black, and Sabhadra yellow. Jug¬ 
gernaut’s car is forty-three and a half feet high. It has sixteen wheels, 
each six and a half feet in diameter. The brother and sister have also 
cars. There are thirteen festivals each year. The chief is the Rath 
Jattra, or Car Festival, at which the three idols are brought forth, being 
dragged out in their cars by the multitudes of devotees. Formerly a 
few^fanatics threw themselves beneath the wheels: this is not now 
permitted {Peggs: Orissa Mission). The Rev. Dr. Stevenson believes 
that the permission of all castes to eat together at Juggernauth, though 
no where else, and the alleged preservation of a bone of Krishna 
within the Juggernauta idol, raise the suspicion that the worship of 
this divinity is^of Buddhist rather than of Brahminical origin. 

Krishna.—The eighth avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu. Kansa, a 
demon-king of Mathura, having ruled oppiessively, the Biahmans sup¬ 
plicated Vishnu to interfere. He, in reply, plucked off two hairs, one 


T 



Dagoba (Sacred Shrine), Anuradhapura—Buried City, Ceylon. 





















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


133 


black, the other white; the former became Krishna. According- to 
Mr. Ward, about three-fifths of the whole Hindu population of Bengal 
are worshipers of this god, and various festivals are held in his honor, 
fie is also worshiped in other parts of India. He is generally repre¬ 
sented as a black man, holding a flute to his mouth with both 
hands, sometimes with his favorite Radha standing on the left. He 
may have been an historical personage, around whom multitudinous 
myths have gathered.— American Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

Suttee, sati.—A form of widow sacrifice (itself a form of 
funeral-sacrifice), formerly common in Brahmanic India, in which the 
widow was burnt with her dead husband on the funeral pyre. Many 
went willingly and gayly to their doom, but others were driven by fear 
of disgrace, by family influence, by priestly threats, and, in not a few 
cases, by sheer violence. Suttee was abolished by law in British 
India, December 4, 1829, but scarcely a year passes by free from its 
being carried out in some of the native principalities, and between 
1813 and 1828, in Calcutta the suttees ranged from 390 to 600 yearly. 
When the question of prohibiting suttee was under discussion, the 
Brahmans quoted the Rig-Veda in favor of the practice; but it was 
shown by Professor Wilson that the text had been falsified ( M. Mul¬ 
ler: Chips from a German Workshop , ii., 34-37). But though suttee 
was expressly prohibited by the ancient Brahmanic funeral rites 
(M. Muller, in Zcits. d. dcutsch. morgcnl. Gcschichtc , ix.), and the widow, 
after ascending the funeral pile, was to be led down by a brother-in- 
law, this symbolic form points to an earlier period when the sacrifice 
was really carried out. The revival must have taken place at a remote 
date; for Propertius (El., III. xiii., 1 5-20) gra phically describes it, and 
vividly contrasts the behavior of Indian with that of Roman wives. 

Transmigration.—Metempsychosis; the doctrine of the passage of 
the soul from one body into another appears among many savage 
races in the form of the belief that ancestral souls return, imparting 
their own likeness to their descendants and kindred, and Tylor {Prim. 
Cult. , ii., 17) thinks that this notion may have been extended so as to 
take in the idea of rebirth in bodies of animals. In this form the belief 
has no ethical value. Transmigration first appears as a factor in the 
gradual purification of the spiritual part of man and its return to God, 
the source and origin of all things, in the religion of the ancient 
people of India, whence it passed to the Egyptians, and, according to 
Herodotus (ii., 123), from them to the Greeks. It was one of the 
characteristic doctrines of Pythagoras, and Pindar the Pythagorean 
(Olymp. ii., antis. 4) lets the soul return to bliss after passing three 
unblemished lives on earth. Plato in the dream of Er (Rep. x) deals 
with the condition and treatment of departed souls; and ( Phccdo , vi., 14) 
extends the period of the return of souls to God to ten thousand 
years, during which time they inhabit the bodies of men and animals. 
Ennius seems to have introduced the doctrine among the Romans 
(Lucretius: de Rer. Nat., i., 120-4). Virgil (rEn., vi., 713-15)* Persius 
( vi., 9), and Horace (Ep., II. i., 52), allude to it, and Ovid (Mctam.,xv., 
l 53 > sqq.) sets forth the philosophy and pre-existences of Pythagoras. 


134 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Traces of it appear in the Apocrypha (e. g. Wisd. viii., 20), and that at 
least some Jews held it in the time of Jesus seems indicated in the 
disciples’ question (John ix., 2). St. Jerome (Ep. ad Demetrh) alludes 
to the existence of a belief in transmigration among the Gnostics, and 
Origen adopted this belief as the only means of explaining some 
Scriptural difficulties, such as the struggle of Jacob and Esau before 
birth (Gen. xxv., 22) and the selection of Jeremiah (Jer. i., 5). In 
modern times Lessing held it and taught it in his essay (Dass mchr als 
funf Sinne fur den Menschen sein konnen)\ it formed part of the system 
of Swedenborg (True Christian Religion , 13), and Charles Kingsley 
seems to have written his Water Babies to put on record his belief in 
transmigration. Figuier deals with the subject in his book, Le Lende- 
main de la Mort , of which there is an English edition, The Day after 
Death: Our Future Life , according to Scie?ice. 

One of the most notable points about the theory of transmigration 
is its close bearing upon a thought which lies very deep in the history 
of philosophy, the development theory of organic life in successive 
stages. An elevation from the vegetable to the lower animal life, and 
thence onward through the higher animals to man, to say nothing of 
superhuman beings, does not here require even a succession of distinct 
individuals, but is brought by the theory of metempsychosis within 
the compass of the successive vegetable and animal lives of a single 
being. ( Tylor: Prim. Cult. (ed. 1873), ii., 18).— Amcrica?i Encyclo¬ 
paedic Dictionary. 

Vaiseshika.—One of the six leading systems of Brahmanic 
philosophy. The system assumes or establishes that all mate¬ 
rial substances are composed of atoms mechanically united. These 
atoms it regards as eternal in their duration. The combinations of 
them which form the present world are, however, but transitory, so 
also is the present system of things. The Vaiseshika philosophy is 
generally connected with the Nyaya or Logical school of Gautama, of 
which it is supposed to be a modification. 

Vaishnava.—A primary religious section of the Hindus, who 
adore Vishnu in preference to, if not to the exclusion of, the other 
persons of the Hindu Triad. 

Sadh, Saadh.—A Hindu religious sect founded, A. D. 1658, by a man 
called Birbhan. They believe in one God, who alone is to be wor¬ 
shiped. They have no temples, but assemble at stated periods in houses, 
or courts adjoining to them. They teach a pure morality. Their 
numbers are few, and they are found chiefly in Furruckabad, Delhi, 
Mirzapore, etc. 

Saiva.—A follower of Siva, the third of the Hindu Triad, spec., a 
monastic devotee of the god. H. H. Wilson (Religious Sects of the 
Hindus , 1862, p. 32) divides these devotees into nine orders. Dandis, 
and Dasnamis, Jogis, Jangamas, Paramahansas, Urdhabahus, Akas 
Mukhis and Nakhis, Gudaras, Rukharas, Sukharas and Ukharas, Kara 
Lingis, Sannyasis, etc. 

Sakta. A woishiper of the Sakti, the power or energy of the 
divine nature in action, and personified in a female form. If the pro- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


135 


clivities of the worshiper are toward the adoration of Vishnu, then 
the personified Sakti is termed Lakshmi or Maha-Lakshmi; if it 
be toward that of Siva, the Sakti is denominated Parvati, Bhavani 
or Durga. The principal religious books of the Saktas are the Tanfras. 
It is believed that at least three-fourths of the Hindus of Bengal are 
of this sect, and of the remaining fourth, three are Vaishnavas to one 
Saiva ( Relig . Sects of the Hindus , 1862, p. 32). 

Sikh, Seikh.—A Hindu reforming sect and nationality, the former 
of which commenced with Nanuk Shah (A. D. 1469-1539). He was 
an enthusiast who, retaining the whole body of poetical and mythologi¬ 
cal fiction of Hinduism, still preached the unity of the Godhead, the 
essential identity of all castes, universal toleration, and the emanci 
pation of the spirit from the tenets of Maya (illusion), by acts of be¬ 
nevolence and self-denial. Persecuted by the Mohammedans, the Sikh 
enthusiasm became fanaticism; and about the close of the seventeenth 
century, their leader the Guru Govind, the tenth teacher from Nanuk, 
devoted his followers to steel and the worship of the sword, which he en¬ 
couraged them to use in defense of the faith. Pie also ordered his ad¬ 
herents to allow their hair and beards to grow, to wear blue garments, 
and eat all flesh but that of the cow. Caste was abolished among his 
followers, and the Das Padishah ka grantli, was compiled by him, that, 
with the Adi Granth , containing the sayings of Nanuk and his immedi¬ 
ate successors, it might supersede the Vedas and the Puranas. The 
struggle against the Mohammedan government was sanguinary, but it 
ended by the Sikhs achieving their independence. Runjeet Singh 
(1780-1839), the Lion of the Punjaub, their chief seat, obtained for 
them the benefit of European discipline, and laid the foundation of a 
Sikh empire, which, coming into collision with the Anglo-Indian gov¬ 
ernment, went down in the pitched battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, 
Aliwal, and Sobraon, in 1845-6. Rebellion occurring in 1848, further 
losses were inflicted, in 1849, a t Chillianwallah and Guzerat. When 
the mutinies broke out in 1857, the Sikhs, who had been well governed 
during the few years they had been under British rule, fought with ex¬ 
ceeding loyalty on the side of their conquerors, to prevent the restor¬ 
ation of a Mohammedan empire like that from which, two centuries 
before, they had suffered such persecution. 



HINDU TEMPLE. 



















































Hinduism. 

By MANILAL N. DVIVEDI, of Bombay, India. 



INDUISM is a wide term, but at the same 
time a vague term. The word Hindu was 
invented by the Mohammedan conquerors 
of Aryavata, the historical name of India, 
and it denotes all who reside beyond the 
Indus. Hinduism, therefore, correctly speak¬ 
ing is no religion at all. It embraces within 
its wide intention all shades of thought, 
from the atheistic Jainas and Bauddhas to 
the theistic Sampradaikas and Samajists and 
the rationalistic Advaytins. But we may 
agree to use the term in the sense of that 
body of philosophical and religious princi¬ 
ples which are professed in part or whole 
by the inhabitants of India. I shall confine 
myself in this short address to unfolding the meaning 
of this term, and shall try to show the connection of 
this meaning with the ancient records of India, the 

Vedas. 

Before entering upon this task permit me, however, to make a few 
preliminary observations. And first it would greatly help us on if we 
had settled a few points, chief among them the meaning of the word 
religion. Religion is defined by Webster generally as any system of 
worship. This is, however, not in the sense in which the word is 
understood in India. The word has a threefold connotation. Religion 
divides itself into physices, ontology and ethics, and without being 
that vague something which is set up to satisfy the requirements of the 
emotional side of human nature, it resolves itself into that rational 
demonstration of the universe which serves as the basis of a practical 
system of ethical rules. Every Indian religion—for let it be under¬ 
stood there is quite a number of them—has therefore some theory of 
the physical universe, complemented by some sort of spiritual govern¬ 
ment, and a code of ethics consistent with that theory and that govern¬ 
ment. So, then, it would be a mistake to take away any one phase of 
any Indian religion and pronounce upon its merits on a partial survey 

137 




138 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The next point I wish to clear is the chronology of the Puranas. 

I mean the chronology given in the Puranas. Whereas the Indian 
religion claims extravagant antiquity for its teachings, the tendency 
of Christian writers has been to cramp everything within the narrow 
period of 6,000 years. But for the numerous vagaries and fanciful theo¬ 
ries these extremes give birth to, this point would have no interest for 
us at the present moment. With the rapid advance made by physical 
science in the west, numerous testimonies have been unearthed to 
show the untenableness of Biblical chronology, and it would be safe 
to hold the mind in mental suspense in regard to this matter. The 
third point is closely connected with the second. Every one has a 
natural inclination toward his native land and language, and particu¬ 
larly toward the religion in which he is brought up. It, however, 
behooves men of impartial judgment to look upon all religions as so 
many different explanations of the dealings of the Supreme with men 
of varying culture and nationality. It is impossible to do justice to 
these themes in this place, but we will start with these necessary pre¬ 
cautions that the following pages may not appear to make any extra¬ 
ordinary demands upon the intelligence of those brought up in the 
atmosphere of the so-called “Oriental research” in the west. 

We may now address ourselves tc the subject before us. At least 
six different and well marked stages are visible in the history of 
Indian philosophic thought, and each stage appears to have left its 
impress upon the meaning of the word Hinduism. The six stages 
may be enumerated thus: (i) the Vedas; (2) the Sutra; (3) the Dar- ' 
sana; (4) the Purana; (5) the Samapradaya; (6) the Samaja. Each of 
these is enough to fill several volumes, and all I can attempt here is a 
cursory survey of “Hinduism,” in the religious sense of the word. 

1. Let us begin with the Vedas. The oldest of the four Vedas is 
admittedly the Rigveda. It is the most ancient record of the Aryan 
nation, nay, of the first humanity our earth knows of. Traces of 
a very superior degree of civilization and art, found at every page, pre¬ 
vent us from regarding these records as containing only the outpour¬ 
ings of the minds of pastoral tribes ignorantly wondering at the grand 
phenomena of nature. We find in the Vedas a highly superior order 
of rationalistic thought pervading all the hymns, and we have ample 
reasons to conclude that the childish poetry of primitive hearts, Agni 
and Vishne and Indra and Rudra, are indeed so many names of differ¬ 
ent gods, but each of them had really a threefold aspect. 

Vishne, for example, in his terrestrial or temporal aspect, is the 
physical sun; in his corporal aspect he is the soul of every being, and 
in his spiritual aspect he is the all-pervading essence of the cosmos. 
In their spiritual aspect all Gods are one, for well says the well-known 
text, “only one essence the wise declare in many ways.” And this con¬ 
ception of the spiritual unity of the cosmos as found in the Vedas is 
the crux of western oriental research. The learned doctors are unwill¬ 
ing to see more than the slightest trace of this conception in the Veda, 
for, say they, it is all nature worship, the invocation of different inde- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


139 


pendent powers which held the wondering mind of this section of 
primitive humanity in submissive admiration and praise. However 
well this may accord with the psychological development of the 
human mind, there is not the slightest semblance of evidence in the 
Vedas to show that these records belong to that hypothetical period 
of human progress. 

In the Vedas there are marks everywhere of the recognition of the 
idea of one God, the God of nature, manifesting Himself in many forms. 
This word “God’ J is one of those which have been the stumbling block 
of philosophy,, God, in the sense of a personal Creator of the universe, 
is not known in the Veda, and the highest effort of rationalistic thought 
in India has been to see God in the totality of all that is. And, indeed, 
it is doubtful whether philosophy, be it that of a Kant or a Hegel, has 
ever accomplished anything more. It hereby stands to reason that 
men who are so far admitted to be Kants and Hegels should, in other 
respects, be only in a state of childish wonderment at the phenomena 
of nature. 

I humbly beg to differ from those who see in monotheism, in the 
recognition of a personal God apart from nature, the acme of intellect¬ 
ual development. I believe that is only a kind of anthropomorphism 
which the human mind stumbles upon in its first efforts to understand 
the unknown. The ultimate satisfaction of human reason and emotion 
lies in the realization of that universal essence which is the all. And I 
hold an irrefragable evidence that this idea is present in the Veda, the 
numerous gods their invocations notwithstanding. This idea of the 
formless all, the Sat— i. e., esse-being—called Atman and Brahman in 
the Upanishads, and further explained in the Darsanas, is the central 
idea of the Veda, nay, the root idea of the Hindu religion in general. 

There are several reasons for the opposite error of finding nothing 
more than the worship of many gods in the Vedas. In the first place, 
western scholars are not quite clear as to the meaning of the word 
Veda. Native commentators have always insisted that the word Veda 
does not mean the Samhita only, but the Brahmanas and the Upani¬ 
shads as well; whereas, oriental scholars have persisted in understand¬ 
ing the word in the first sense alone. The Samhita is no doubt a col¬ 
lection of hymns to different powers and, taken by itself, it is most 
likely to produce the impression that monotheism was not understood 
at the time. Apart, however, from clear cases to the contrary observ¬ 
able by any one who can read between the lines, even in the Samhita, 
a consideration of that portion along with the other two parts of the 
Veda will clearly show the untenableness of the Orientalist position. 
The second source of error, if I may be allowed the liberty to refer to 
it, is the religious bias already touched upon at the outset. If, then,' 
we grasp the central idea of the Vedas we shall understand the real 
meaning of Hinduism as such. 

The other conditions of the word will unfold themselves, by and 
by, as we proceed. We need not go into any further analysis of the 
Veda, and may come at once to the second phase of religious thought, 



140 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the Sutras and Smritis, based on the ritualistic portion of Vedic litera¬ 
ture. 

2. Sutra means an aphorism. In this period we have aphoristic 
works bearing upon ritual, philosophy, morals, grammar and other 
subjects. Though this period is distinct from the Vedic and subse¬ 
quent periods, it is entirely unsafe to assume that this or any other 
period occurred historically in the order of succession adopted for the 
purpose of this essay. Between the Veda and Sutra lie the Brah- 
manas, with the Upanishads and Aryanakas and the Smritis. The 
books called Brahmanas and Upanishads form part of the Veda, as 
explained before; the former explaining the ritualistic use and appli¬ 
cation of Vedic hymns, the latter systematizing the unique philosophy 
contained in them. What the Brahmanas explained allegorically, and 
in the quaint phraseology of the Veda, the Smritis, which followed 
them, explained in plain, systematic, modern Sanskrit. As the Veda 
is called Siruti, or something handed down orally from teacher to 
pupil, these later works are called Smritis, something remembered 
and recorded after the Smritis. The Sutras deal with the Brahmanas 
and Smritis on the one hand, and with the Upanishads on the other. 
These latter we shall reserve for consideration in the next stage of 
religious development, but it should never be supposed that the cen¬ 
tral idea of the All as set forth in the Upanishads had at this period, 
or indeed at any period, ceased to govern the whole of the religious 
activity of India. The Sutras are divided principally into the Grhva, 
Sranta and Dharma Sutras. The first deals with the Smritis, the 
second with the Brahmanas, and the third with the law as administered 
by Smritis. The first set of Sutras deals with the institution of Varnas 
and Asramas and with the various rites and duties belonging to them. 
The second class of Sutras deals with the larger Vedic sacrifices, and 
those of the third deals with that special law subsequently known as 
Hindu law. It will be interesting to deal j ‘en masse” with these sub¬ 
jects in this place—leaving the subject of law out of consideration. 

And first let us say a few words about caste. In Vedic times the 
whole Indian people is spoken of broadly as the Aryas and the Anar- 
yas. Arya means respectable and fit to be gone, from the root R “to 
go,” and not an agriculturist, as the orientalist would have it, from a 
fanciful root ar, to till. The Aryas are divided into four sections 
called Varnas, men of white color, the others being Avarnas. These 
four sections comprise, respectively, priests, warriors, merchants and 
cultivators, artisans and menials, called Brahmanas, Ksatrivas and 
Sudras. These divisions, however, are not at all mutually exclusive 
in the taking of food or the giving in marriage of sons and daughters. 
Nay, men used to be promoted or degraded to superior or inferior 
Varnas according to individual deserts. In the Sutra period we find 
all this considerably altered. Manu speaks of promiscuous intercourse 
among Varnas and Avarnas leading to the creation of several jatis, 
sections known by the incident of birth, instead of by color as before. 

This is the beginning of that exclusive system of castes which has 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


141 


proved the bane of India’s welfare. Varna and Jati are foremost 
among many other important features which we find grafted on Hin¬ 
duism in this period. We find in works of this period that the life of 
every man is distributed into four periods—student life, family life, 
forest life and life of complete renunciation. This institution, too, has 
become a part of the meaning of the word Hinduism. The duties and 
relations of Varnas, Jatis and Asramas are clearly defined in the Sutras 
and Smritis, but with these we need not concern ourselves except in 
this general manner. I can, however, not pass over the well-known 
subject of the Samskaras, certain rites which under the Sutras every 
Hindu is bound to perform if he professes to be a Hindu. Those 
rites, twenty-five in all, may be divided into three groups—rites incum¬ 
bent, rites optional and rites incidental. The incumbent rites are 
such as every householder is bound to observe for securing immu¬ 
nity from sin. Every householder must rise early in the morning, wash 
himself, revise what he has learned and teach it to others without 
remuneration. In the next place he must worship the family gods and 
spend some time in silent communion with whatever power he adores. 
He should then satisfy his prototypes in heaven—the lunar Pitris—by 
offerings of water and seamen seeds. Then he should reconcile the 
powers of the air by suitable oblations, ending by inviting some stray 
comer to dinner with him. Before the householder has thus done his 
duty by his teachers, gods and Pitris and men, he cannot go about his 
business without incurring the bitterest sin. 

The optional rites refer to certain ceremonies in connection with 
the dead, whose souls are supposed to rest with the lunar Pitris for 
about a thousand years or more before reincarnation. These are 
called sraddhas, ceremonies, whose essence is sraddha, faith. There 
are a few other ceremonies in connection with the commencement or 
suspension of studies, and these, together with the sraddhas, just re¬ 
ferred to, make up the four optional Samskaras, which the Smritis 
allow every one to perform according to his means. 

By far the most important are the sixteen incidental Samskaras. 
I shall, however, dismiss the first nine of these with simple enumera¬ 
tion. Four of the nine refer, respectively, to the time of first cohab¬ 
itation, conception, quickening and certain sacrifices, etc., performed 
with the last. The other five refer to rites performed at the birth of a 
child and subsequently at the time of giving it a name, of giving it 
food, of taking it out of doors, and at the time of shaving its head in 
some sacred place on an auspicious day. The tenth, with the four 
subsidiary rites connected with it, is the most important of all. It is 
called Upanavana, the “ taking to the gurnu,” but it may yet better be 
described as initiation. The four subsidiary rites make up the four 
pledges which the neophyte takes on initiation. 1 his rite is performed 
on male children alone at the age of from five to eight in the case of Brah- 
manas, and a year or two later in the case of others, except Sudras, 
who have nothing to do with any of the rites save marriage. The 
young boy is given a peculiarly prepared thread of cotton to wear con- 



# 


Japanese Idols—Dragon of the Typhoon. 












THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


143 


stantly on the body, passing it crossways over the left shoulder and 
under the right arm. It is a mark of initiation which consists in the 
imparting of the sacred secret of the family and the order to the boy, 
by his father and the family gurnu. 

The boy pledges himself to his teacher, under whose protection 
he henceforth begins to reside, to carry out faithfully the four vows 
he has taken, viz., study, observance of religion, complete celibacy and 
truthful ness. This period of pupilage ends after nine years at the 
shortest, and thirty-six years at the longest period. The boy then re¬ 
turns home, after duly rewarding his teacher, and finds out some suita¬ 
ble girl for his wife. 

This return in itself makes up the fifteen Samskars. The last, but 
not the least, is the vivaha—matrimony. The sutras and smritis are 
most clear on the injunctions about the health, learning, competency, 
family connections, beauty, and above all, personal liking of principal 
parties to a marriage. Marriages between children of the same blood 
or family are prohibited. As to age, the books are very clear in ordain¬ 
ing that there must be a distance of at least ten years between the 
respective ages of wife and husband, and that the girl may be married 
at any age before attaining puberty, preferably at ten or eleven, though 
she may beafifiancedatabouteightor nine. Be it remembered that mar¬ 
riage and consummation of marriage are two different things in India, 
as a consideration^ of this Samskara, in connection with the first of 
the nine enumerated at the beginning of this group, will amply show, 
several kinds of marriage are enumerated, and among the eight gener¬ 
ally given we find marriage by courting as well. 

The marriage ceremony is performed in the presence of priests 
and gods represented by fire on the altar, and the tie of love is sanc¬ 
tified by Vedic mantras, repetition of which forms indeed an indispen¬ 
sable part of every rite and ceremony. The pair exchanges vows of 
fidelity and indissoluble love and bind themselves never to separate 
even after death. The wife is supposed henceforth to be as much 
dependent on her husband as he on her, for as the wife has to com¬ 
plete the fulfillment of love as her principal duty, the husband has, in 
return, the entire maintenance of the wife, temporally and spiritually, 
as his principal duty. When the love thus fostered has sufficiently 
educated the man into entire forgetfulness of self, he may retire, either 
alone or with his wife, into some secluded forest and prepare himself 
for the last period of life, complete renunciation, i. e., renunciation of 
all individual attachment, of personal likes and dislikes, and realiza¬ 
tion of the All in the eternal self-sacrifice of universal love. 

It goes without saying that widow remarriage as such is unknown 
in this system of life, and the liberty of woman is more a sentiment 
than something practically wanting in this careful arrangement. 
Woman as woman has her place in nature quite as much as man as 
man, and if there is nothing to hamper the one or the other in the dis¬ 
charge of his or her functions as marked out by nature, liberty beyond 
this limit means shadows, disorder and irresponsible license. And 


144 


THE RELIGIONS OF TIIE WORLD. 


indeed nature never meant her living embodiment of lone woman to be 
degraded to a footing of equality with her partner, to fight the hard 
struggle for existence, or to allow love's pure stream to be defiled by 
being led into channels other than those marked out for it. This is in 
substance the spirit of the ancient Sastras when they limit the sphere 
of woman’s action to the house, and the flow of her heart to one and 
one channel alone. 

3. We arrive thus in natural succession to the third period of 
Aryan religion, the Darsanas, which enlarge upon the central idea of 
Atman, or Brahma, enunciated in the Veda and developed in the 
Upanishads. It is interesting to allude to the Charvakas, the material¬ 
ists of Indian philosophy, and to the Jainas and the Buddhas, who, 
though opposed to the Charvakas, are anti-Brahmanical, in that they 
do not recognize the authority of the Veda and preach an independ¬ 
ent gospel of love and mercy. These schisms, however, had an in¬ 
different effect in imparting fresh activity to the rationalistic spirit of 
the Aryan sages, lying dormant under the growing incumbrances of 
the ritualism of the Sutras. 

The central idea of the All as we found it in the Veda is further 
developed in the Upanishads. In the Sutra period several sutra works 
were composed setting forth in a systematic manner the main teach¬ 
ing of the Upanishads. Several works came to be written in imitation 
of these subjects closely connected with the main issues of philosophy 
and metaphysics. This spirit of philosophic activity gave rise to the 
six well known Darsanas, or schools of philosophy. Here again it is 
necessary to enter the caution that the Darsanas do not historically 
belong to this period, for, notwithstanding this, their place in the 
general development of thought and the teachings they embody are 
as old as the Veda, or even older. 

The six Darsanas are Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Xoga, 
Mimansa and Vedanta, more conveniently grouped as the two Nyayas, 
the two Sankhyas and the two Mimansas Each of these must require 
at least a volume to itself, and all I can do in this place is to give the 
merest outline of the conclusions maintained in each. Each of the 
Darsanas has that triple aspect which we found at the outset in the 
meaning of the word religion, and it will be convenient to state the 
several conclusions in that order. The Nyaya then is exclusively con¬ 
cerned with the nature of knowledge and the instruments of knowl¬ 
edge, and while discussing these it sets forth a system of logic not yet 
surpassed by any existing system in the west. The Vaiseshika is a 
complement of the Nyaya, and while the latter discusses the meta¬ 
physical aspect of the universe, the former works out the atomic 
theory and resolves the whole of the namable world into seven 
categories. 

So, then, physically, the two Nyayas advocate the atomic theory 
of the universe. Ontologically they believe that these atoms move in 
accordance with the will of an extra-cosmic personal creature called 
Isvara. Every being has a soul called Jiva, whose attributes are de- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


145 


sire, intelligence, pleasure, pain, merit, demerit, etc. Knowledge 
arises from the union of Jiva and mind, the atomic manas. The high¬ 
est happiness lies in Jiva’s becoming permanently free from its attri¬ 
bute of misery. This freedom can be obtained by the grace of Iswara, 
pleased with the complete devotion of the jiva. The Veda and the 
Upanishad are recognized as authority, in so far as they are the word 
of this Iswara. 

The Sankhyas differed entirely from the Naiyayikas in that they 
repudiated the idea of a personal creator of the universe. They ar¬ 
gued that if the atoms were in themselves sufficiently capable of form¬ 
ing themselves into the universe, the idea of a God was quite super¬ 
fluous. And as to intelligence the Sankhyas maintained that it is inher¬ 
ent in nature. These philosophers, therefore, hold that the whole 
universe is evolved by slow degrees, in a natural manner, from one 
primordial matter called mulaprakriti, and that purusa, the principle 
of intelligence, is always co-ordinate with, though ever apart from, 
mulaprakriti. Like the Naiyayikas, they believe in the multiplicity of 
purusas—souls; but unlike them they deny the necessity, as well as 
the existence, of an extra-cosmic God. Whence, they have earned for 
themselves the name of atheistic Sankhyas. They resort to the Vedas 
and Upanishads for support so far as it may serve their purpose, and 
otherwise accept in general the logic of the ten Naiyayikas. 

The Sankhyas place the summum bonum in “life according to 
nature.” They endow primordial matter with three attributes—pas¬ 
sivity, restlessness and crossness. Prakriti continues in endless evolu¬ 
tion under the influence of the second of these attributes, and the 
purusa falsely takes the action on himself and feels happy or miserable. 
When a purusa has his prakriti brought to the state of passivity by 
analytical knowledge (which is the meaning of the word sankhya), he 
ceases to feel himself happy or miserable and remains in native peace. 
This is the sense in which those philosophers understand the phrase 
“life according to nature.” 

The other Sankhya, more popularly known as the Yogo-Darsana, 
accepts the whole of the cosmology of the first Sankhya, but only 
adds to it a hypothetical Isvara and largely expands the ethical side 
of the teaching by setting forth several physical and psychological 
rules and exercises capable of leading to the last state of happiness 
called Kanivalya—life according to nature. This is theistic Sankhya. 

The two Mimansas next call our attention. These are the ortho¬ 
dox Darsanas par excellence, and as such are in direct touch with 
the Veda and the Upanishads, which continue to govern them from 
beginning to end. Mimansa means inquiry, and the first preliminary 
is called Purva-Mimansa, the second Uttara-Mimansa. The object of 
the first is to determine the exact meaning and value of the injunctions 
and prohibitions given out in the Veda, and that of the second is to 
explain the esoteric teachings of the Upanishads. The former, there¬ 
fore, does not trouble itself about the nature of the universe or about 
the ideas of God and soul. It tells only of Dharma, religious merit, 
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THE RELIGIONS OF THE IVOR LI). 


147 


which, according to its teaching, arises in the next world from strict 
observance of Vedic duties, this Mimansa, fitly called the purva, a 
preliminary Mimansa, we may thus pass over without any further 
remark. The most important Darsana of all is by far the Utara, or 
final Mimansa, popularly known as the Vedanta, the philosophy taught 
in the Upanishads as the end of the Veda. 

The Vedanta emphasizes the idea of the All, the universal Atman 
or Brahman, set forth in the Upanishads, and maintains the unity not 
only of the Cosmos but of all intelligence in general. The All is self- 
illumined, all thought (gnosis), the very being of the universe. 
Being implies thought, and the All may in Venuanta phraseology be 
aptly described as the essence of thought and being. The Vedanta is 
a system of absolute idealism in which subject and object are rolled 
into one unique consciousness, the realization whereof is the end and 
aim of existence, the highest bliss—Moksa. This state of Moksa is 
not anything to be accomplished or brought about—it is in fact the 
very being of all existence; but experience stands in the way of com¬ 
plete realization by creating imaginary distinctions of subject and • 
object. This system, besides being the orthodox Darsana, is philo¬ 
sophically an improvement upon all previous speculations. 

The Nyaya is superseded by the Sankya, whose distinction of 
matter and intelligence is done away with in this philosophy of abso¬ 
lute idealism, which has endowed the phrase “life according to nature” 
with an entirely new and more rational meaning. For, in its ethics, 
this system teaches not only the brotherhood, but the Atma-hood Ab- 
heda, oneness, of not only man but of all beings, of the whole uni¬ 
verse. The light of the other Darsanas pales before the blaze of unity 
and love lighted at the altar of the Veda by this sublime philosophy, 
the shelter of minds like Plato, Pythagoras, Bruno, Spinoza, Hegel, 
Schopenhauer in the west, and Krisna, Vyasa, Sankara and others in 
the east. 

We cannot but sum up at this point, Hinduism adds one more 
attribute to its connotation in this period, viz., that of being a believer 
in the truths of one or other of these Darsanas, or of one or other of 
the three anti-Brahmanical schisms. And with this we must take 
leave of the great Darsana sages and come to the period of the 
Puranas. 

4. The subtleties of the Darsanas were certainly too hard for 
ordinary minds, and some popular exposition of the basic ideas of 
philosophy and religion was indeed very urgently required. And this 
necessity began to be felt the more keenly as Sanskrit began to die 
out as a speaking language and the people to decline in intelligence, 
in consequence of frequent inroads from abroad. No idea more happy 
could have been conceived at this stage vhan that of devising certain 
tales and fables calculated at once to catch the imagination and enlist 
the faith of even the most ignorant, and at the same time to suggest to 
the initiated a clear outline of the secret doctrine of old. It is exactly 
because Orientalists don’t understand this double aspect of Pauranika 


148 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


myths that they amuse themselves with philogical quibbles and talk 
of the religion of the Puranas as something entirely puerile and not 
deserving the name of religion. We ought, however, to bear in mind 
that the Puranas are closely connected with the Vedas, the Sutras and 
the Darsanas, and all they claim to accomplish is a popular exposition 
of the basic ideas of philosophy, religion and morality set forth in 
them. 

In other words, the Puranas are nothing more nor less than broad, 
clear commentaries on the ancient teaching of the Vedas. For exam¬ 
ple, it is not because Vyasa, the author of the Puranas, forgot that 
Vishnu was the name of the sun in the Veda that he talked of a sepa¬ 
rate god of that name in the Puranas, endowing him with all mortal 
attributes. This is how the orientalist method of interpretation would 
dispose of the question. The Hindus have better confidence in the 
insight of Vyasa, and could at once see that inasmuch as he knew per¬ 
fectly well what part the sun plays in the evolution, maintenance and 
dissolution of the world, he represented him symbolically as God 
Vishnu, the all-pervading, with Laksmi, a personification.of the life 
and prosperity which emanate from the sun for his consort, with the 
anauta—popularly the snake of that name, but esoterically the endless 
circle of eternity—for his couch, and with the eagle representing the 
many antaric cycle for his vehicle. There is in this one symbol suffi¬ 
cient material for the ignorant to build their faith upon and nourish 
the religious sentiment, and for the initiate to see in it the true secret 
of Vedic religion. And this nature of the Puranas is an indirect proof 
that the Vedas are not mere poetical effusions of primitive man nor a 
conglomeration of solar myths disguised in different shapes. 

The cycles just referred to put me in mind of another aspect of 
Puranika mythology. The theory of cycles known as Kalpas, Man- 
vantaras and Yugas is clearly set forth in the Puranas and appears to 
make exorbitant demands upon our credulity. The Kalpa of the 
Puranas is a cycle of 4,320,000,000 years and the world continues in 
activity for one Kalpa, after which it goes into dissolution and remains 
in that condition for another Kalpa, to be followed by a fresh period 
of activity. Each Kalpa has fourteen well-marked subcycles called 
Manvantaras, each of which is again made up of four periods called 
Yugas. The name Manvantara means time between the Manus, and 
Manu means “with one mind,” that is to say, humanity, the whole sug¬ 
gesting that a Manvantara is the period between one humanity and 
another on this globe. Whence it will also be clear why the present 
Manvantara is called Vaivasvata, “belonging to the sun,” for, as is well 
established, on that luminary depends the life and being of man on 
this earth. 

This theory of cycles and subcycles is amply corroborated by 
modern geological and astronomical researches, and considerable light 
may be thrown on the evolution of man if with reason as our guide we 
study the aspect of the Puranas. The theory of Simian descent is con¬ 
fronted in the Puranas with a theory more in accord with reason and 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


149 


experience. But I have no time to go into the details of each and 
every Puranika myth. I can only assure you, gentlemen, that all that is 
taught in the Puranas is capable of being explained consistently in 
accord with the main body of ancient theosophy expounded in the 
Vedas, the Sutras and the Darsanas. We must only free ourselves 
from what Herbert Spencer calls the religious bias and learn to look 
facts honestly in the face. 

I must say a word here about idol worship, for it is exactly in or 
after the Pauranika period that idols came to be used in India. It may 
be said without the least fear of contradiction that no Indian idolater 
as such believes the piece of stone, metal or wood before his eyes to 
be his God in any sense of the word. He takes it only as a symbol of 
the all-pervading and uses it as a convenient object for purposes of 
concentration, which, being accomplished, he does not hesitate to 
throw it aw r ay. The religion of the Tantras, which plays an important 
part in this period, has considerable influence on this question, and 
the symbology they taught as typical of several important processes 
of evolution has been made the basic idea in the formation of idols. 
Idols, too, have, therefore, a double purpose—that of perpetuating a 
teaching as old as the world and that of serving as convenient aids to 
concentration. 

These interpretations of Puranika myths find ample corroboration 
in the myths that are met with in all ancient religions of the world; 
and these explanations of idol worship have an exact parallel applica¬ 
tion to the worship of the Tau in Egypt, of the cross in Christendom, 
of fire in Zoroastrianism, and of the Kaba in Mohammedanism. 

With these necessarily brief explanations we may try to see what 
influence the Puranas have had on Hinduism in general. It is true the 
Puranas have added no new connotation to the name, but the one very 
important lesson they have taught the Hindu is the principle of uni¬ 
versal toleration. The Puranas have distinctly taught the unity of the 
All, and satisfactorily demonstrated that every creed and worship is 
but one of the many ways to the realization of the All. A Hindu 
would not condemn any man for his religion, for he has well laid to 
heart the celebrated couplet of the Bhagavate: “Worship, in whatever 
form, rendered to whatever God, reaches the Supreme, as rivers, rising 
from whatever source, all flow into the ocean. 

5. And thus, gentlemen, we come to the fifth period, the Sam- 
pradayas. The w r ord sampradaya means tiadition, the teaching handed 
down from teacher to pupil. The whole Hindu religion considered 
from the beginning to the present time is one vast field of thought, 
capable of nourishing every intellectual plant of whatever degree of 
vio-or and luxuriance. The one old teaching was the idea of the All, 
usually known as the Advaita 01 the Vedanta. In the ethical aspect 
of this philosophy stress has been laid on knowledge (gnosis) and free 
action. Under the debasing influence of a foreign yoke these sober 
paths of knowledge and action had to make room for devotion and 
grace. On devotion and grace rest their principal ethical tenets. 




Idol Deesse Thoueris, in Ghiza. 


♦ 

















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


151 


Three important schools of philosophy arose in the period after the 
Puranas. Besides the ancient Advaita we have the Dvaita, the Visud- 
dhadvaita and the Visishthadvaita schools of philosophy in this 
period. The first is purely dualistic postulation, the separate yet co¬ 
ordinate existence of mind and matter. The second and third profess 
to be Unitarian, but in a considerably modified sense of the word. 

The Visuddhadvaita teaches the unity of the cosmos, but it insists 
on the All having certain attributes which endow it with the desire to 
manifest itself as the cosmos. The third system is purely dualistic, 
though it goes by the name of modified Unitarianism. It maintains 
the unity of chit (soul), achet (matter) and Isvara (God), each in its 
own sphere, the third number of this trinity governing all and pervad¬ 
ing the whole, though not apart from the cosmos. Thus widely differ¬ 
ing in their philosophy from the Advaita, these three Sampradayas 
teach a system of ethics entirely opposed to the one taught in that 
ancient school called Dharma in the Advaita. They displaced Jnana 
by Bhakti, and Karma by Prasada; that is to say, in other words, they 
placed the highest happiness in obtaining the grace of God by entire 
devotion, physical, mental, moral and spiritual. The teachers of each 
of these Sampradayas are known as Acharyas, like Sankara, the first 
great Acharya of the ancient Advaita. The Acharyas of the new 
Sampradayas belong all to the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the 
Christian era. 

Every Acharya develops his school of thought from the Upani- 
shads, the Vedanta Sutras, and from that sub-sublime poem, “The 
Bhagvadgita,” the crest jewel of the Maha Bharata. The new Achar¬ 
yas, following the example of Sankara, have commented upon these 
works. And have thus applied each his own system to the Veda. 

In the Sampradayas we see the last of the pure Hinduism, for the 
sacred Devanagari ceases henceforth to be the medium even of relig¬ 
ious thought. The four principal Sampradayas have found numerous 
imitators, and we have the Saktas, the Saivas, the Pasupatas and many 
others, all deriving their teaching from the Vedas, the Darsanas, the 
Puranas and the Tantras But beyond this we find quite a lot of 
teachers: Ramananda, Kabira, Dadu, Nanaka, Chaitanya, Sahajananda 
and many others holding influence over small tracts over all India. 

None of these have a claim to the title of Acharya or the founders 
of a new school of thought, for all that these noble souls did was to 
explain one or another of the Sampradayas in the current vernacular of 
the people. The teachings of these men are called Panthas—mere 
ways to religion as opposed to the traditional teachings of the Samp¬ 
radayas. 

The bearing- of these Sampradayas and Panthas, the fifth edition, 
as it were, of the ancient faith on Hinduism in general, is not worthy 
of note except in the particular that henceforth every Hindu must 
belong to one of the Sampradayas or Panthas, 

6. This brings us face to face with the India of today and Hin- 
duism as it stands at present. It is necessary at the outset to under- 


152 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


stand the principal forces at work in bringing about the change we are 
going to describe. In the ordinary course of events one would 
naturally expect to stop at the religion of the Sampradayas and 
Panthas. The advent of the English followed by the educational policy 
they have maintained for half a century has, however, worked several 
important changes in the midst of the people, not the least important 
of which are those which affect religion. Before the establishment of 
British rule and the peace and security that followed in its train, 
people had forgotten the ancient religion, and Hinduism had dwindled 
down into a mass of irrational superstition reared on ill understood 
Pauranika myths. The spread of education set people to thinking, 
and a spirit of “reformation” swayed the minds of all active-minded 
men. 

The chance work was, however, no reformation at all. Under the 
auspices of materialistic science, and education guided by materialistic 
principles, the mass of superstition then known as Hinduism was 
scattered to the winds, and atheism and skepticism ruled supreme. 
But this state of things was not destined to endure in religious India. 
The revival of Sanskrit learning brought to light the immortal treasures 
of things buried in the Vedas, Upanishads, Sutras, Darsanas and 
Puranas, and the true work of reformation commenced with the revival 
of Sanskrit. Several pledged their allegiance to their time-honored 
philosophy. 

But there remained many bright intellects given over to material¬ 
istic thought and civilization. These could not help thinking that the 
religion of those whose civilization they admired must be the only true 
religion. Thus they began to read their own notions in texts of the 
Upanishads and the Vedas. They set up an extra-cosmic, yet all- 
pervading and formless creature, whose grace every soul desirous of 
liberation must attract by complete devotion. This sounds like the 
teaching of the Visishthadvaita Sampradaya, but it may safely be said 
that the idea of an extra-cosmic personal creation without form is an 
un-Hindu idea. And so also is the belief of these innovators in 
regard to their negation of the principle of reincarnation. The body 
of this teaching goes by the name of the Brahmo-Somaj, which has 
drawn itself still further away from Hinduism by renouncing the 
institutions of Varnas and the established law of marriage, etc. 

The society which next calls our attention is the Arya-Samaja of 
Swami Dayananda. This society subscribes to the teaching of the 
Nyaya-Darsana and professes to revive the religion of the Sutras in 
all social rites and observances. This Somaj claims to have found out 
the true religion of the Aryas, and it is of course within the pale of 
Hinduism, though the merit of their claim yet remains to be seen. 

The third influence at work is that of the Theosophical society. 
It is pledged to a religion contained in the Upanishads of India, in 
the book of the Dead of Egypt, in the teachings of Confucius and Lao 
Tse in China, and of Buddha and Zoroaster in Thibet and Persia, in 
the Kabala of the Jews and in the Sufism of the Mohammedans; and 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


153 


it appears to be full of principles contained in the Advaita and Yoga 
philosophies. It cannot be gainsaid that this society has created 
much interest in religious studies all over India and has set earnest 
students to studying their ancient books with better lights and fresher 
spii its than before. Time alone can test the outcome of this or any 
other movement. The term Hinduism, then, has nothing to add to its 
meaning from this period of the Samajas. The Brahmo-iSomaj widely 
differs from Hinduism and the Aryasamaja, or Theosophical society 
does not profess anything new. 

To sum up, then, Hinduism may in general be understood to 
connote the following principal attributes: (i) Belief in the exist¬ 
ence of a spiritual principle in nature and in the principle of reincar¬ 
nation. (2) Observance of a complete tolerance and of the Sams- 
karas, being in one of the Varnas and Asramas, and being bound by 
the Hindu law. This is the general meaning of the term, but in its 
particular bearing it implies: (3) Belongingto one of the Darsanas, 
Sampradayas or Panthas, or to one of the anti-Brahmanical schisms. 

******** 

If religion is not wholly that something which satisfies the crav¬ 
ings of the emotional nature of man, but is that rational demonstration 
of the cosmos, which shows at once the why and wherefore of exist¬ 
ence, provides the eternal and all-embracing foundation of natural 
ethics and by showing to humanity the highest ideal of happiness 
realizable, excites and shows the means of satisfying the emotional 
part of man; if, I say, religion is all this, all questions of particular 
religious professions and their comparative value must resolve them¬ 
selves into simple problems workable with the help of unprejudiced 
reason and intelligence. In other words, religion, instead of being a 
mere matter of faith, might well become the solid province of reason, 
and a science of religion may not be so much a dream as is imagined 
by persons pledged to certain conclusions. Holding, therefore, these 
views on the nature of religion, and having at heart the great benefit 
of a common basis of religion for all men, I would submit the follow¬ 
ing simple principles for your consideration: 

First. Belief in the existence of an ultramaterial principle in 
nature and in the unity of the All. 

Second. Belief in reincarnation and salvation by action. 

These two principles of a possible universal religion might stand 
or fall on their merits apart from the consideration of any philosophy 
or revelation that upholds them. I have every confidence no philos¬ 
ophy would reject them, no science would gainsay them, no system of 
ethics would deny them, no religion which professes to be philosophic, 
scientific and ethical ought to shrink back from them. In them I see 
the salvation of man and the possibility of that universal love, which 
the world is so much in need of at the present moment. 




JAPANESE TEMPLE AND IDOL, REPRESENTING BUDDHA, 












H> n duism as a Religion. 

By SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, of India. 


HREE religions now stand in the world which 
have come down to us from time prehistoric— 
Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Indaism. These 
all have received tremendous shocks and all 
of them prove by their revival their internal 
strength, but Indaism failed to absorb Chris¬ 
tianity and was driven out of its place of birth 
by its all-conquering daughter. Sect after sect 
has arisen in* India and seemed to shake the 
religion of the Vedas to its very foundations; 
but, like the waters of the seashore in a tre¬ 
mendous earthquake, it has receded only for a 
while, only to return in an all-absorbing flood, 
and when the tumult of the rush was over these 
sects had been all sucked in, absorbed and 
assimilated in the immense body of another 
faith. 

From the high spiritual flights of philosophy, of which the latest 
discoveries of science seem like echoes, from the atheism of the Jains 
to the low ideas of idolatry and the multifarious mythologies, each 
and all have a place in the Hindu’s religion. 

Where then, the question arises, where then the common center to 
which all these widely diverging radii converge? Where is the common 
basis upon which all these seemingly hopeless contradictions rest? 
And this is the question which I shall attempt to answer. 

The Hindus have received their religion through the revelation of 
the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and with¬ 
out end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience—how a book can 
be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. 
They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by 
different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation ex¬ 
isted before its discovery and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so 
with the laws that govern the spiritual world; the moral, ethical and 
spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits 
and the father of all spirits were there before their discovery and 
would remain even if we forgot, them. 

3 155 





156 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE IVOR LB. 


The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis and we honor 
them as perfected beings, and I am glad to tell this audience that some 
of the very best of them were women. 

Here it may be said, that the laws as laws may be without end, 
but they must have had a beginning. The Vedas teach us that crea¬ 
tion is without beginning or end. Science has proved to us that the 
sum total of the cosmic energy is the same throughout all time. Then, 
if there was a time when nothing existed, where was all this manifested 
energy? Some say it was in a potential form in God. But then God 
is sometimes potential and sometimes kinetic, which would make him 
mutable, and everything mutable is a compound, and everything com¬ 
pound must undergo that change which is called destruction. There¬ 
fore God would die. Therefore there never was a time when there was 
no creation. 

Here I stand, and if I shut my eyes and try to conceive my 
existence, “ I,” “ I,” “ I,” what is the idea before me? The idea of a 
body. Am I, then, nothing but a combination of matter and material 
substances? The Vedas declare, “ No.” I am a spirit living in a body. 
I am not the body. The body will die, but I will not die. Here am I 
in this body, and when it will fail, still I will go on living. Also I had 
a past. The soul was not created from nothing, for creation means a 
combination, and that means a certain future dissolution. If, then, 
the soul was created, it must die. Therefore, it was not created. Some 
are born happy, enjoying perfect health, beautiful body, mental vigor, 
and with all wants supplied. Others are born miserable. Some are 
without hands or feet, some idiots, and only drag out a miserable 
existence. Why, if they are all created, why does a just and merciful 
God create one happy and the other unhappy? Why is He so partial? 
Nor would it mend matters in the least to hold that those who are mis¬ 
erable in this life will be perfect in a future life. Why should a man 
be miserable here in the reign of a just and merciful God? 

In the second place, it does not give us any cause, but simply a 
cruel act of an all-powerful being, and therefore it is unscientific. 
There must have been causes, then, to make a man miserable or happy 
before his birth, and those were his past actions. Why may not all 
the tendencies of the mind and body be answered for by inherited 
aptitude from parents? Here are the two parallel lines of existence— 
one that of the mind, the other that of matter. 

If matter and its transformation answer for all that we have, there 
is no necessity of supposing the existence of a soul. But it cannot be 
proved that thought has been evolved out of matter. We cannot deny 
that bodies inherit certain tendencies, but those tendencies only mean 
the physical configuration through which a peculiar mind alone can 
act in a peculiar way. Those peculiar tendencies in that soul have 
been caused by past actions. A soul with a certain tendency will take 
birth in a body which is the fittest instrument of the display of that 
tendency, by the laws of affinity. And this is in perfect accord with 
science, for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD . 


15 ? 


got through repetitions. So these repetitions are also necessary to 
explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. They were not got in 
this present life; therefore, they must have come down from past lives. 

But there is another suggestion, taking all these for granted. 
How is it that I do not remember anything of my past life? This can 
be easily explained. 1 am now speaking English. It is not my mother 
tongue; in fact, not a word of my mother tongue is present in my con¬ 
sciousness; but, let me try to bring such -words up, they rush into my 
consciousness. That shows that consciousness is the name only of the 
surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths are stored up all our 
experiences. Try and struggle and they will come up and you will be 
conscious. 

This is the direct and demonstrative evidence. Verification is the 
perfect proof of a theory, and here is the challenge thrown to the 
world by Rishis. We have discovered precepts by which the very 
depths of the ocean of memory can be stirred up; follow them and 
you will get a complete reminiscence of your past life. 

So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him the sword 
cannot pierce, him the fire cannot burn, him the water cannot melt, 
him the air cannot dry. He believes every soul is a circle whose cir¬ 
cumference is nowhere, but whose center is located in a body, and 
death means the change of this center from body to body. Nor is the 
soul bound by the condition of matter. In its very, essence it is free, 
unbound, holy and pure and perfect. But somehow or other it has 
got itself bound down by matter, and thinks of itself as matter. 

Why should the free, perfect and pure being be under the thral¬ 
dom of matter? How can the perfect be deluded into the belief that 
he is imperfect? We have been told that the Hindus shirk the ques¬ 
tion and say that no such question can be there, and some thinkers 
want to answer it by the supposing of one or more quasi perfect beings, 
and use big scientific names to fill up the gap. But naming is not 
explaining. The question remains the same. How can the perfect 
become the quasi perfect; how can the pure, the absolute, change even 
a microscopic particle of its nature? The Hindu is sincere. He does 
not want to take shelter under sophistry. He is brave enough to face 
the question in a manly fashion. And his answer is, “I do not know.” 
I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, came to think of itself 
as imperfect, as joined and conditioned by matter. But the fact is a 
fact for all that. It is a fact in everybody’s consciousness that he 
thinks of himself as the body. We will not attempt to explain why 
I am in this body. 

Well, then, the human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and 
infinite, and death means only a change of center from one body to 
another. The present is determined by our past actions, and the future 
will be by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting 
back from birth to birth and death to death—like a tiny boat in a tem¬ 
pest, raised one moment on the foaming crest of a billow and dashed 
down into a yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the mercy 


158 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE IVOR LI). 


of good and bad actions—a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever raging, 
ever rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect. A little 
moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on, crushing 
everything in its way and waits not for the widow’s tears or the 
orphan’s cry. 

The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of nature. Is there 
no hope? Is there no escape? The cry that went up from the bottom 
of the heart of despair reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope 
and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage and he stood up 
before the world and in trumpet voice proclahned the glad tidings to 
the world, “Hear, ye children of immortal bliss, even ye that resisted 
in higher spheres. I have found the ancient one, who is beyond all 
darkness, all delusion, and knowing Him alone you shall be saved from 
death again.” “Children of immortal bliss,” what a sweet, what a 
hopeful name. Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name, 
heirs of immortal bliss; yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. 

Ye are the children of God. The sharers of immortal bliss, holy 
and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth, sinners? It is a sin to call 
a man so. It is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, live and 
shake off the delusion that you are sheep—you are souls immortal, 
spirits free and blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies. 
Matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter. 

Thus it is the Vedas proclaim, not a dreadful combination of unfor¬ 
giving laws, not an endless prison of cause and effect, but that, at the 
head of all these laws, in and through every particle of matter and 
force, stands One “through whose command- the wind blows, the fire 
burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks upon the earth.” And what is 
His nature? 

He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and 
the All-merciful. “Thou art our Father, Thou art our Mother, Thou 
art our beloved Friend, Thou art the source of all strength. Thou art 
He that bearest the burdens of the universe; help me to bear the little 
burden of this life.” Thus sang the Rishis of the Veda. And how to 
worship Him?' Through love. “He is to be worshiped as the One 
beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life.” 

This is the doctrine of love preached in the Vedas, and let us see 
how it is fully developed and preached by Krishna, whom the Hindus 
believe to have been God incarnate on earth. 

He taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, 
which grows in water, but is never moistened by water; so a man ought 
to live in this world, his heart for God and his hands for work. 

It is good to love God for hope of reward in this or the next world, 
but it is better to love God for love’s sake, and the prayer goes, “Lord, 
I do not want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be Thy will I 
will go to a hundred hells, but grant me this, that I may love Thee 
without the hope of reward—unselfishly love for love’s sake.” One of 
the disciples of Krishna, the then emperor of India, was driven from 
his throne by his enemies and had to take shelter in a forest in the 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


159 


Himalayas with his queen, and there one day the queen was asking him 
how it was that he, the most virtuous of men, should suffer so much 
misery, and \ uchistera answered, “Behold, my queen, the Himalayas, 
how grand and beautiful they are! I love them. They do not give 
me anything, but my nature is to love the grand, the beautiful; there¬ 
fore, I love them. Similarly, I love the Lord. He is the source of all 
beauty, of all sublimity. He is the only object to be loved. My 
nature is to love Him, and therefore I love. I do not pray for any¬ 
thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He 
likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I cannot trade in love.” 

The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held under bondage 
of matter, and perfection will be reached when the bond shall burst, 
and the word they use is, therefore, Mukto—freedom—freedom from 
the bonds of imperfection; freedom from death and misery 

And they teach that this bondage can only fall off through the 
mercy of God, and this mercy comes to the pure. So purity is the 
condition of His mercy. How that mercy acts! He reveals Himself 
to the pure heart, and the pure and stainless man sees God; yea, even 
in this life, and then, and then only. All the crookedness of the heart 
is made straight. Then all doubt ceases. Man is no more the freak 
of a terrible law of causation. So this is the very center, the very 
vital conception of Hinduism. The Hindu does not want to live upon 
words and theories; if there are existences beyond the ordinary sen¬ 
sual existence, he wants to come face to face with them. If there is 
a soul in him which is not matter, if there is an all-merciful universal 
soul, he will go to Him direct. He must see Him, and that alone can 
destroy all doubts. So the best proof a Hindu sage gives about the 
soul, about God, is, “ I have seen the soul, I have seen God.” 

And that is the only condition of perfection. The Hindu religion 
does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine 
or dogma, but in realizing; not in believing, but in being and becoming. 

So the whole struggle in their system is a constant struggle to be¬ 
come perfect, to become divine, to reach God and see God, and in 
this reaching God, seeing God, becoming perfect, even as the Father in 
heaven is perfect, consists the religion of the Hindus. 

And what becomes of man when he becomes perfect? He lives a 
life of bliss, infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, having ob¬ 
tained the only thing in which man ought to have pleasure—God— 
and enjoys the bliss with God. 

So far all the Hindus are agreed. This is the common religion 
of all the sects of India, but then the question comes—perfection 
is absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or three. It cannot have 
any qualities. It cannot be an individual. And so when a soul be¬ 
comes perfect and absolute, it must become one with the Brahman, 
and he would only realize the Lord as the perfection, the reality of 
his own nature and existence—existence absolute; knowledge absolute 
and life absolute. We have often and often read about this being 
called the losing of individuality as in becoming a stock or a stone. 
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound. 



PROCESSION OF THE SACRED BULL.—Ancient Egyptian Religion. 














THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


161 


I tell you it is nothing of the kind. If it is happiness to enjoy 
the consciousness of this small body, it must be more happiness to en- 
’oy the consciousness of two bodies, or three, four, five; and the ulti¬ 
mate of happiness would be reached when it would become a univer¬ 
sal consciousness. 

Therefore, to gain this infinite, universal individuality, this miser¬ 
able little individuality must go. Then alone can death cease, when I 
am one with life. Then alone can misery cease, when I am one with 
happiness. Then alone can all errors cease, when I am one with 
knowledge itself. And this is the necessary scientific conclusion. 
Science has proved to me that physical individuality is a delusion, that 
really my body is one little, continuously changing body in an un¬ 
broken ocean of matter, and the Adwaitam is the necessary conclusion 
with my other counterpart, mind 

Science is nothing but the finding of unity, and as soon as any 
science can reach the perfect unity it will stop from further progress, 
because it will then have reached the goal. Thus, chemistry cannot 
progress further, when it shall have discovered one element out of 
which all others could be made. Physics will stop when it shall be 
able to discover one energy of which all others are but manifestations. 
The science of religion will become perfect when it discovers Him 
who is the one life in a universe of death, who is the constant basis of 
an ever-changing world, who is the only soul of which all souls are 
but manifestations. Thus, through multiplicity and duality the ulti¬ 
mate unity is reached, and religion can go no further. This is the goal 
of all—again and again, science after science, again and again. 

And all science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long 
run Manifestation and not creation is the word of science of today, 
and the Hindu is only glad that what he has cherished in his bosom 
for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language and with fur¬ 
ther light by the latest conclusions of science. 

Descend we now from the aspirations of philosophy to the relig¬ 
ion of the ignorant. At the very outset, I may tell you that there is 
no polytheism in India. In every temple, if one stands by and listens, 
he will find the worshipers apply all the attributes of God, including 
omnipresence, to these images. It is not polytheism. “The rose 
called by any other name would smell as sweet.” Names are not ex¬ 
planations. 

I remember, when a boy, a Christian man was preaching to a crowd 
in India. Among other sweet things, he was asking the people, if he 
gave a blow to their idol with his stick, what could it do?” One of 
his hearers sharply answered: “If I abuse your God what can He do?” 
“You would be punished,” said the preacher, “when you die.” “So 
my idol will punish you when you die,” said the villager. 

The tree is known by its fruits, and when I have been amongst 
them that are called idolatrous men, the like of whose morality and 
spirituality and love I have never seen anywhere, I stop and ask my¬ 
self, “Can sin beget holiness?” 

11 


162 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Superstition is the enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. Why does 
a Christian go to church? Why is the cross holy? Why is the face 
turned toward the sky in prayer? Why are there so many images in 
the Catholic church? Why are there so many images in the minds of 
Protestants when they pray? My brethren, we can no more think 
about anything without a material image than we can live without 
breathing. And by the law of association the material image calls the 
mental idea up and vice versa. Omnipresence, to almost the whole 
world, means nothing. Has God superficial area? If not, when we 
repeat the word we think of the extended earth, that is all. 

As we find that somehow or other, by the laws of our constitution, 
we have got to associate our ideas of infinity with the image of a blue 
sky, or a sea, some cover the idea of holiness with an image of a 
church, or a mosque, or a cross. The Hindus have associated the ideas 
of holiness, purity, truth, omnipresence, and all other ideas with dif¬ 
ferent images and forms. But with this difference*. Some devote 
their whole lives to their idol of a church and never rise higher., 
because with them religion means an intellectual assent to certain 
doctrines and doing good to their fellows. The whole religion of the 
Hindu is centered in realization. Man is to become divine, realizing 
the divine, and, therefore, idol, or temple, or church, or books, are only 
the supports, the helps, of his spiritual childhood; but on and on man 
must progress. 

He must not stop anywhere. “ External worship, material wor¬ 
ship,” says the Vedas, “is the lowest stage, struggling to rise high; 
mental prayer is the next stage, but the highest stage is when the Lord 
has been realized.” Mark the same earnest man who was kneeling 
before the idol tell you, “ Him the sun cannot express, nor the moon 
nor the stars, the lightning cannot express him, nor the fire; through 
Him they all shine.” He does not abuse the image or call it sinful. 
He recognizes in it a necessary stage of His life. “The child is father 
of the man.” Would it be right for the old man to say that childhood 
is a sin or youth a sin? Nor is it compulsory in Hinduism. 

If a man can realize his divine nature with the help of an image, 
would it be right to call it a sin? Nor, even when he has passed that 
stage, should he call it an error? To the Hindu, man is not traveling 
from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. 
To him all the religions, from the lowest fetichism to the highest abso¬ 
lutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize 
the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and associa¬ 
tion, and each of these mark a stage of progress, and every soul is a 
young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more 
strength till it reaches the glorious sun. 

Unity and variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has recog¬ 
nized it. Every other religion lays down certain fixed dogmas, amd 
tries to force society to adopt them. They lay down before society 
one coat which must fit John and Job and Henry, all alike. If it does 
not fit John or Henry he must go without a coat to cover his body, 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


163 


The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can only be realized or 
thought of or stated through the relative, and the images, cross or cres¬ 
cent, are simply so many centers, so many pegs to hang the spiritual 
ideas on. It is not that this help is necessary for every one, but for 
many, and those that do not need it have no right to say that it is 
wrong 

One thing I must tell you. Idolatry in India does not mean any¬ 
thing horrible. It is not the mother of harlots. On the other hand, it 
is the attempt of undeveloped minds to grasp high spiritual truths. 
The Hindus have their faults; but mark this, they are always toward 
punishing their own bodies and never toward cutting the throats of 
their neighbors. If the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the pyre, he 
never lights the fire of inquisition. And even this cannot be laid at 
the door of religion any more than the burning of witches can be laid 
at the door of Christianity. 

To the Hindu, then, the whole world of religion is only a travel¬ 
ing, a coming up, of different men and women, through various condi¬ 
tions and circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is only an 
evolution out of the material man, a God—and the same God is the in- 
spirer of all of them Why, then, are there so many contradictions? 
They are only apparent, says the Hindu. The contradictions come 
from the same truth adapting itself to the different circumstances of 
different natures. 

It is the same light coming through different colors. And these 
little variations are necessary for that adaptation. But in the heart of 
everything the same truth reigns. The Lord has declared to the Hindu 
in His incarnation as Krishna, “I am in every region as the thread 
through a string of pearls. And wherever thou seest extraordinary 
holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity, 
know ye, that I am there.” And what was the result? Through the 
whole order of Sanskrit philosophy, I challenge anybody to find any 
such expression as that the Hindu only would be saved, not others. 
Says Vyas, “ We find perfect men even beyond the pale of our caste 
and creed.” How, then, can the Hindu, whose whole idea centers in 
God, believe in the Buddhism which is agnostic, or the Jainism which 
is atheist? 

The whole force of Hindu religion is directed to the great central 
truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not 
seen the Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen 
the Son hath seen the Father. 



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A SHINTO TEMPLE, JAPAN. 










BUDDHISM 




Buddhism. 


E system of faith introduced or reformed by 
Buddha and known as Buddhism was a reac¬ 
tion against the caste pretensions of the Brah¬ 
mans and other Aryan invaders of India, and 
was therefore eminently fitted to become, as 
it for a long time was, the religion of the van¬ 
quished Turanians. As might have been antici¬ 
pated, the equality of all castes was, and is, 
one of its most fundamental tenets. Another 
tenet is the deification of men who, when 
raised to Buddhahood, are called Buddhas. 
Professors of the faith enumerate about one 
hundred of these personages, but practically 
confine their reverence to about seven. Pre¬ 
eminent among these stands Buddha himself. 
Personally, he never claimed divine honors. 
It was his disciples who first entitled him Sakya Muni, i. e., Saint 
Sakya. 

As Gautama, though adored as superhuman, is, after all, con¬ 
fessedly only a deified hero, it has been disputed whether his followers 
can be said to admit a Supreme Intelligence, Governor of this and all 
worlds. In philosophy, they believe the universe to be a maya, an illu¬ 
sion or phantom. The later Brahmanists do the same; but in the 
opinion of Krishna Mohun, Banergea, and others, these latter seem to 
have borrowed the tenet from the Buddhists rather than the Buddhists 
from them. Of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, those which 
Buddhism most closely approaches are the Sankhya philosophy of 
Kapila and the Yoga philosophy of Patanjali. Buddhism enjoins great 
tenderness to animal life. The felicity at which its professors aim in 
the future world is called Nirvana, or, more accurately, Nibbanam. It 
has been disputed whether this means annihilation or blissful repose. 
Mr. Robt. Caesar Childers, in his dictionary of the Pali language, uses 
strong arguments in favor of the former view. Buddhism was attended 
by an enormous development of monasticism. The most gigantic the 
world has ever seen, and the earliest in point of date. The Jain sys¬ 
tem is also monastic. Brahmanism possessed it to a less, but still to 
a considerable extent. Of the Hindu Triad the worship of Brahma 
scarcely exists; connected with that of Vishnu and Siva there are many 

167 




168 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


monastic orders or sects. Of the former Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson 
enumerates nineteen, and of the latter eleven, with fourteen others, 
some sub-divided (Works (1862), i., 12). Curiously enough, most of 
them arose about the same dates as the leading religious orders of 
Christendom were instituted, as if Oriental and Western minds 
advanced, equally, for some cause, and operated simultaneously both 
in the East and the West. 

The first general council of the Buddhist Church was held at 
Rajagriha, the capital of the Magadha kingdom, in B. C. 543. The 
second at Vesal (Allahabad, or a place near Patna) about B. C. 443 
or 377, and a third at Pataliputra (Gr. Palibothra=modern Patna), 
on the Ganges, in B. C. 307 or 250. This last one was called by 
Asoka, an emperor ruling over a great part of India, who had been 
converted to Buddhism, and is sometimes called the Constantine of 
that faith, having established it as the state religion of his wide realm. 
He sent missionaries into Western, Central and Southern India, and 
also to Ceylon and to Pegu. Buddhism was dominant in India for 
about one thousand years after its establishment by Asoka. Then, 
having become corrupt and its vitality having decayed, reviving Brah¬ 
manism prevailed over it, and all but extinguished it on the Indian 
continent, though a modification of it, Jainism, still exists in Marwad 
and many other parts. It has all along held its own, however, in 
Ceylon. On losing continental India, its missionaries transferred their 
efforts to China, which they converted, and which still remains Bud¬ 
dhist. The religion of Gautama flourishes also in Thibet, Burmah and 
Japan, and is the great Turanian faith of the modern as of the ancient 
world. One-third of the human race profess Buddhism. 

The Rev. G. Smith points out resemblances between Buddhism 
and Roman Catholicism (these, it may be added, were first discovered 
by the Jesuit missionaries, who were greatly perplexed by them): 
“ There is the monastery, celibacy, the dress and caps of the priests, 
the incense, the bells, the rosary of beads, the lighted candles at the 
altar, the same intonations in the services, the same ideas of purga¬ 
tory, the praying in an unknown tongue, the offerings to departed 
spirits in the temple.” The closest similarity is in Lamaism, an 
amplification of Buddhism in Thibet. But most of the resemblances 
are ceremonial; there is no close similarity in doctrine between the 
two faiths. 

“There is also something stronger than a presumption of the ex¬ 
istence of Buddhism previous to Sakya Muni’s ministry” {Col. Sykes in 
Jour. Asiat. Soc. f vi., 261). 

Buddha.—A man possessed of infinite or infallible knowledge 
( Childers ); a deified religious teacher. There was said to be a series 
of them, a number having come and gone before Gautama. When no 
Buddha is on earth, the true religion gradually decays, but it flourishes 
in pristine vigor when a new Buddha is raised up. He is not, however, 
entitled at once to that honorable appellation; it is only after he has 
put forth arduous exertions for the faith that he attains to Buddha- 
hood. Most of the Buddhas preceding the personage Gautama 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


169 


appear to have been purely fabulous. His immediate predecessor, 
Kasyapa or Kassapo, may have been a real person. 

“ * * * Sakya Muni is usually looked upon as the founder 

of Buddhism, but so far from this being the case Sakya Muni was the 
fourth Buddha of the actual age or second division of the Kappo ” 
(Co/. Sykes in Jour. Asiat. Soc. (1841), vol. vi., p. 261). 

His father was king of Kapilavastu, an old Hindu kingdom at the 
foot of the Nepaulese Mountains, about 100 miles north of Benares; 
he was of the Sakhya family, and the class of the Gautamas, hence his 
distinguished son was often called Sakhya Muni or Saint Sakya, and 
Gautama or Guadama. The Chinese call him Fo, which is the name 
Buddha softened in the pronunciation. The Aryan invaders of India 
looked down with contempt upon the Turanian inhabitants of that 
land, and to keep their blood uncontaminated developed the system 
of caste. Buddha, whose human sympathy was wide-reaching, broke 
through this old restraint, and though he was himself an Aryan, 
preached the equality of races, a doctrine which the oppressed Tura¬ 
nians eagerly embraced. By the common account he was born in 
B. C. 622, attained to Buddhahood in 580, and died in 543, or in the 
opinion of some in B. C. 477, and other years than these, such as 
B. C. 400, or even lower, have been contended for. Buddha became 
deified by his admiring followers. Those images of an Oriental god, 
made of white marble, so frequently seen in museums, and even in 
private houses, are representations of Buddha. 

Taoism.—One of the three religions of China. Its founder, 
Laotse, lived, according to tradition, in the sixth century B. C. Tao 
is a word meaning “ way.” It would seem that Tao represented the 
course which Laotse thought a man should pursue in order to over¬ 
come evil. The whole teaching was vague and unsatisfactory; but its 
followers made a great advance on those that had preceded them, by 
believing firmly that ultimately good would gain the victory over evil, 
and by insisting that good should be returned for evil, as the sure way 
to overcome it. When Taoism appears as a definite factor in the his¬ 
tory of China, in the third century B. C., it appears as a congeries of 
superstitions; belief in the manifestations of spirits, alchemy, astrol¬ 
ogy, searching for the herb of immortality, and the sublimation of the 
body so as to render it ethereal. Taoism wa 3 largely modified by 
Buddhism, some of the doctrines and practices of which it adopted; 
but it still adheres to its old superstitions, though in its treatises it 
enjoins much of the Confucian and the Buddhistic morality.— Ameri¬ 
can Encyclopedic Dictionary . 

Bung Kwang Yu, in an essay on Confucianism, described Taoism 
as the corrupted form of Buddhism that prevails in China. He says 
in his paper on Confucianism: 

“ During the Chau and Sain dynasties, when the philosophers of 
rival schools were vying with one another in their effort to gain pop¬ 
ular applause, the teaching of Gautama began to find its way into 
China. The historiographical works of China mention the fact that 
the scriptures of the Buddhists were brought into China during the 


170 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


reign of the Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty. All the Buddhistic 
writings that have been translated from the original into Chinese 
from that time down to the present day would fill a building from 
floor to ceiling, and would make up a load heavy enough to cause an ox 
to sweat. Still they only treat of the methods of obtaining release from 
this world, and have not a word to say concerning the arts by which 
the world is ruled. On this account, though the teachings of Buddha 
are called heterodox, and are not accepted by the Confucianists as a 
body, yet there are Confucianists who are fascinated with the mysticism 
of the ideas set forth. At the present day the followers of Buddha in 
China are merely priests living in cloisters. Few of them are versed 
in the classical works of their religion. Among the heterodox faiths 
in China, Buddhism can, doubtless, muster the greatest number of 
believers. 

“Lao-tz, the founder of Taoism, was a historiographer of the Chau 
dynasty, and a contemporary of Confucius. His system of philosophy 
is eclectic, and not original, being characterized by a sincere seeking 
after truth, and by a love for antiquity. The only work of his that is 
still extant is the treatise on Wisdom and Virtue. It consists of five 
thousand words and is said to be a compilation made by him of the 
maxims of Hwang-ti, respecting the government of the nation and 
the government of the army. The substance of his teaching is that 
public affairs should be administered in a quiet way and with entire 
self-abnegation on the part of the public servants who, having per¬ 
formed the required service, should at once seek retirement. Taoism 
is commonly regarded as having derived its doctrines and precepts 
from Hwang-ti and Lao-tz. Now, Hwang-ti was a direct ancestor of the 
Yao, who is regarded by Confucianists as their pattern of wisdom and 
virtue. So it seems that both Confucianism and Taoism may be said 
to have sprung from the same source. The living exponents of 
Taoism at the present day are an ignorant priesthood, consisting of 
temple-tenders merely. Though the temples of the Taoists and the 
Buddhists are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the 
Empire, yet there are essential differences in the course pursued by 
each sect to gain proselytes. The so-called Buddhists and Taoists of 
the present day differ not at all in their training and practices of 
priests, and are not, therefore, allowed to compete at the public exam¬ 
inations with the Confucianists. The reason is, that the Confucianists 
devote themselves to the study of things human, while the priests of 
the two sects devote themselves to the study of things spiritual. 

“ What the Confucianists call things spiritual is nothing more 
than the law of action and reaction, which operates upon matter with¬ 
out suffering loss, and which causes the seasons to come round with¬ 
out deviation. What priests of the two sects call things spiritual consist 
of prayers and repentance, which they make use of as a means of 
practicing deception upon the people by giving out that they can 
reveal the secrets of happiness and misery thereby. As a rule, they 
are men given to speculations on the invisible world of spirits, and 
neglectful of the requirements and duties of life. For this reason they 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


171 


are employed by public functionaries to officiate on occasions of public 
worship, and at the same time they are despised by the Confucianists 
as the dregs of the people. 

“ Under the later dynasties, especial functionaries have always 
been appointed to perform the duties of priests. All the temples 
scattered over the Empire, as well as the Buddhist and Taoist 
cloisters, have priests in charge who hold positions in the government 
similar to those known in the Chau dynasty under the name of 
spiritual officers. These priests, however, are but common men with 
no special training. They are mere servants of the public in all mat¬ 
ters pertaining to the worship of Heaven and spirits. The most noble 
personage of this class is the living descendant of one of the shining 
lights of Taoism, who bears the title of 4 Heavenly Teacher.’ He has 
supreme control of all the matters pertaining to the worship of 
Heaven, and possesses a supernatural knowledge of the light and 
darkness of the spiritual world, and also the power of controlling evil 
spirits. He may be called the spiritual head of the priesthood, such 
as existed in ancient times, and is a man full of wisdom and under¬ 
standing, and not one of those who mislead the minds of men by 
means of false and fraudulent gods. The Imperial Government has 
conferred upon him the dignity of hereditary noble of the third class, 
and the spiritual gifts which have remained in his family for two 
thousand years have descended to him from father to son. In China 
there is but one family of this character. The nation, as a whole, has 
always held the head of the Taoist priesthood in high respect. Not a 
word of complaint has ever been uttered against him for any cause.” 

Lamaism.—A system partly religious, partly political—the Church 
and State Establishment of Thibet—stands in the same relation to 
Buddhism proper as Roman Catholicism stands to primitive Christianity. 
It has also been defined as a “form of Buddhism, modified by Saivism 
and Shamanism.” Buddhism was introduced into Thibet in A. D. 622 by 
Srong Tsan Kampo, who founded the present capital, now known as 
Lhasa. His zeal was now shared by his two queens, one named Brib- 
soon, a princess from Nepaul, the other Wen Ching, a princess from 
China, who are said to have founded La Branq and Ra Mochay, the 
most famous religious houses in Thibet. From the death of this 
king down to about 850 is called the “ First Introduction of Religion.” 
More than a century of civil war followed, and in 971 there took 
place the “Second Introduction of Religion” in Thibet. For more 
than 300 years Buddhism grew in power and wealth, and Kublai Khan 
embraced the doctrine of the Lamas. In 1390, Tsongkapa, the Thib¬ 
etan monastic reformer, appeared in Lhasa, and at his death, in 1419, 
he left three immense monasteries with 30,000 monks. The two things 
on which he insisted were, (1) the observance of celibacy, and (2) sim¬ 
plicity in dress. About the middle of the fifteenth century the Em¬ 
peror of China acknowledged the leaders—the Dalai Lama and the 
Pantshem Lama—as titular overlords of the Church and tributary 
rulers of Thibet. Both are looked upon as incarnations—living in heaven 
and appearing on earth in an apparitional body. When one dies he 



Receptacle for the “Sacred Tooth,” Kandy, Ceylon. 






















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


173 


is supposed to become incarnate in some male child born about that 
time. There is a hierarchy corresponding in a marked degree to that 
of the Roman Church, and Hue & Gabet describe the principal act of 
religious worship as wonderfully like a high mass. The political 
authority of the Dalai Lama is confined to Thibet, but he is head of 
the Buddhist Church throughout Mongolia and China (Rhys Davids. 
in Encyc. Brit.). 

Nirvana.—The exact meaning of this word has been disputed. It 
seems to be used for (i) the goal to which Buddhists aspire, (2) the 
state of mind which is a condition for attaining that goal. Spence 
Hardy considers it to mean simply the cessation of existence. It is 
only attained by those who have released themselves from cleaving to 
existing objects ( Eastern Monachism (1850), pp. 280, 292). 

“The believer who has gone thus far has reached the last stage; 
he has cut the meshes of ignorance, passion, and sin, and has thus 
escaped from the net of transmigration ; Nirvana is already within his 
grasp ; he has risen above the laws of material existence ; and when 
this one short life is over, he will be free forever from birth, with its 
inevitable consequences, decay and death ” ( Rhys Davids , in Encyc. 
Brit., iv., 428). 

Buddha himself did not teach of God, nor of individual immor¬ 
tality. Transmigration, ending at last in Nirvana, or nonexistence, is 
the chief doctrine. The ethics of Buddhism are not to destroy life ; 
not to lie; not to partake of intoxicating liquors ; not to acquire 
another’s property unjustly ; not to indulge the passions to the injury 
of others, and charity to the needy. The sins of the body are three— 
murder, theft, impurity ; of speech four—lying, slander, abuse, unprofit¬ 
able conversation; of the mind three—covetousness, malice, skepticism; 
evils to be avoided—drinking intoxicating liquors, gambling, idleness, 
improper associations, frequenting amusement resorts ( Spence Hardy's 
Manual of Buddhism). 

These are from the Buddhist Bible: 

“Rise up! and loiter not! 

Practice a normal life and right; 

Who follows virtue rests in bliss. 

Both in this world and in the next. 

Follow after the normal life; 

Follow not after wrong; 

Who follows virtue rests in bliss, 

Both in this world and in the next. 

“To cease from all wrong-doing; 

To get virtue; 

To cleanse one’s own heart; 

This is the religion of the Buddhas.” 


3uddhism. 

By BANRIEU YATSUBUCHI, of Japan. 


E radiating light of the civilization of the 
present century, to be seen in Europe and 
America, is reflected on all corners of the 
earth. My country has already opened inter¬ 
national intercourse and made rapid progress, 
owing to America, for which I return many 
thanks. The present state of the world’s 
civilization, however, is limited always to the 
near material world, and it has not yet set 
forth the best, most beautiful and most truth' 
ful spiritual world. It is because every relig¬ 
ion, stooping in each corner, neglects its duty 
of universal love and brotherhood. But, at 
last, the day came fortunately that all religions 
sent their members to attend the world’s relig¬ 
ious congress in connection with the Columbian 
exposition of 1893. 

Buddhism is the doctrine taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. The 
word Buddha is Sanscrit and in Japanese it is Satorim, which means 
understanding or comprehension. It has three meanings—self com¬ 
prehension, to let others comprehend and perfect comprehension. 
When wisdom and humanity are attained thoroughly by one he may 
be called Buddha, which means perfect comprehension. In Buddhism 
we have Buddha as our saviour, the spirit incarnate of perfect self-sac¬ 
rifice and divine compassion, and the embodiment of all that is pure 
and good. Although Buddha was not a creator and had no power to 
destroy the law of the universe, he had the power of knowledge to 
know the origin of nature and end of each revolving manifestation of 
the universal phenomena. He suppressed the craving and passions of 
his mind until he could reach no higher spiritual and moral plane. As 
every object of the universe is one part of the truth, of course it may 
become Buddha, according to a natural reason. 

The only difference between Buddha and all other beings is in 
point of supreme enlightenment. Kegon Sutra teaches us that there 
is no distinction between Mind, Buddha and Beings, and Nirvana Su- 

174 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


175 


tra also teaches us that all beings have the nature of Buddhahood. If 
one does not neglect to purify his mind and to increase his power of 
religion, he may take in the spiritual world or space and have cogni¬ 
zance of the past, present and future in his mind. Kishinron tells us 
that space has no limit, that the worlds are innumerable, that the beings 
are countless, that Buddhas are numberless. Buddhism aims to turn 
from the incomplete, superstitious world to the complete enlighten¬ 
ment of the world of truth. 

The complete doctrines of Buddha, who spent fifty years in elab¬ 
orating them, were preached precisely and carefully, and their mean¬ 
ings are so profound and deep that I cannot explain at this time an 
infinitesimal part of them. His preaching was a compass to point 
out the direction to the bewildering spiritual world. He taught his 
disciples just as the doctor cures his patient, by giving several med¬ 
icines according to the different cases. Twelve divisions of sutras and 
eighty-fourthousand laws, made to meet the different cases of Buddha’s 
patients in the suffering world, are minute classifications of Buddha’s 
teaching. Why are there so many sects and preachings in Buddhism? 
Simply because of the differences in human character. His teaching 
may be divided under four heads: Thinking about the general state of 
the world, thinking about the individual character simply, conquering 
the passions, giving up the life to the sublime first principle 

There is no room for censure 'because Buddhism has many sects 
which were founded on Buddha’s teachings, because Buddha consid¬ 
ered it best to preach according to the spiritual needs of his hearers, 
and leave to them the choice of any particular sect. We are not 
allowed to censure other sects, because the teaching ot each guides us 
all to the same place at last. The' necessity for separating the many 
sects arose from the fact that the people of different countries were 
not alike in dispositions, and could not accept the same truths in the 
same way as others. One teaching of Buddha contains many ele¬ 
ments which are to be distributed and separated. But as the object, 
as taught by Buddha, is one, we teach the ignorant according to the 
conditions that arise through our different sects. 


t 



IDOL, REPRESENTING BUDDHA. 














3 u ddha. 

By ZITSUZEN ASHITSU. 


S it not, really, a remarkable event in human 
history that such a large number of the dele¬ 
gates of different creeds are come together 
from every corner of the world, as in a con¬ 
cert, to discuss one problem of humanity— 
universal brotherhood—without the least jeal¬ 
ousy? I am so happy in giving an address as 
a token of my cordial acceptance of the mem¬ 
bership of this congress of religions. 

My subject is Buddha. This subject might 
be treated in two ways, either absolutely or 
relatively. But if I were to take an absolute 
way I am afraid I should not be able to utter 
even a single word, because, when Buddha is 
observed at absolute perfection, there is no word 
in human tongue which is powerful enough to 
interpret the state of its grand enlightenment. So, 
meanwhile, I stoop down to the lower stage, that is, to the manner of 
relativity, in treating this subject, and will explain the highest human 
enlightenment, which is called Buddha, according to the order of its 
five attitudes; that is, denomination, personality, principle, function 
and doctrine. 

Denomination. Buddha is a Sanskrit word and is translated 
Kakusha in Chinese language. The word Kaku means enlighten, so 
one who enlightened his own mind and also enlightened those of 
others was called Buddha. Buddha has three personalities, namely, 
Hosshin, Hoshin and Wojin. Now, in Hosshin, Ho means law and 
Shin means personality, so it is the name given to the personality of 
the constitution after the Buddha got the highest Buddhahood. This 
personality is entirely colorless and formless, but, at the same time, it 
has the nature of eternality, omnipresence, and unchangeableness. 
Hosshin is called Birushana in Sanskrit and Hen-issai-sho in Chinese, 
both meaning omnipresence. 

Then, in Hoshin, Ho means effect, so this is the name given to 
the personality of the result, which the Buddha attained by refining 

177 



12 





178 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


his action. Its Sanskrit name is Rushana, and in Chinese it is Joman, 
in which Jo means clear and Man means fullness, and when put 
together it means a state of the mind free from lust and evil desire, 
but full of enlightened virtues instead. 

This personality has another designation, which is called Jiyn- 
shin, meaning an enjoying personality. And it is again subdivided 
into two classes of Jijiyu and Vajiyo. Jijiyu means to enjoy the 
Buddha himself, the pleasure of attaining to the highest human virt¬ 
ues; while Tajiyu, which is also called world enlightenment, desig¬ 
nates the Buddha’s benevolent action of imparting his holy pleasure 
to his fellow beings with his supreme doctrine. 

In short, the former is to enlighten one’s own mind, while the lat¬ 
ter is to enlighten those of others. These two make a whole as Hoshin, 
which is the name given to the personality of the constitution, as I 
mentioned before, attained by the Buddha by his self-culture. So this 
personality has a beginning, but no end. 

Lastly, Wojin is the name given to a personality which spontane¬ 
ously appears to all kinds of beings in any state and condition in order 
to preach and enlighten them equally. In Sanskrit it is called Sha- 
kammi, and in Chinese, Noninjakumoku. Jakumoku means calmness 
and Nonin means humanity. He is perfectly calm; therefore he is en¬ 
tirely free from life and d*eath. He is perfectly humane; consequently 
is not content even in his state of Nirvana. 

These three personalities which I have just briefly mentioned are 
the attributes of the Buddha’s intellectual activity, and at the same 
time they are the attributes of his one supreme personality. Nay, in 
the way of explanation, we can say that these three personalities are 
not the monopoly of the Buddha, but we also are provided with the 
same attributes. Our constitution is Hosshin, our intellect is Hoshin, 
while our actions are Wojin. Then what is the difference between the 
ordinary beings and Buddha, who is most enlightened of all? Noth¬ 
ing but that he is developed, by his self-culture, to the highest state, 
while we ordinary beings are buried in the dust of passions. If we 
cultivate our minds we can, of course, clear off the clouds of ignorance 
and reach the same enlightened place with the Buddha. 

So in my sect of Buddhism we, the ordinary beings, are also called 
Risoku Buddha, or beings with nature of Buddha. But, as our minds 
are unfortunately full of lusts and superstition, we cannot be called 
Kukyosoku Buddha, as Ahaka, or Gautama, is. He is so entitled be¬ 
cause he has sprung up to the highest state of mental achievement, and 
there is no higher attainable. He says, in his sacred Sutra, “Bomino,” 
“I am the Buddha already enlightened hereafter.” 

Personality. The person of Buddha is perfectly free from life and 
death. (Fusho fumetsu.) We call it Nehan or Nirvana. Nehan is 
divided into four classes: Honrai Jishoshojo Nehan, Uyo Nehan, Muyo 
Nehan, Mujusho Nehan. 

Honrai Jishoshojo Nehan is the name given to the nature of 
Buddha, which has neither beginning nor end, and is perfectly clear of 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


179 


lust like a perfect mirror. But such an excellent nature as I just men¬ 
tioned is not the peculiar property of Buddha, but every being in the 
universe has just the same constitution as Buddha. So it is told in 
Kegon Sutra that “There is no slight distinction between Mind, 
Buddha and Beings.” 

Uyo Nehan is the name given to the state little advanced from the 
above, when we perceive that our solicitude is fleeting, our lives are 
inconstant, and even there is no such thing as ego. In this state our 
mind is quite empty and clear, but there still remains one thing, that 
is, the body. So it is called Nyo, or “something left.” 

Muyo Nehan is the state which has advanced one step higher than 
Uyo. In this Nehan our body and intellect come to entire annihila¬ 
tion and there nothing is traceable; therefore, this state is called Muyo, 
or “nothing left.” 

Mujuslio Nehan is the highest state of Nirvana. In this state we 
get a perfect intellectual wisdom; we are no more subject to birth and 
death. Also, we become perfectly merciful; we are not content with 
the self-indulging state of highest Nirvana, but we appear to the beings 
of every class to save them from prevailing pains by imparting the 
pleasure of Nirvana. 

These being the principal grand desires of Buddhahood, the four 
merciful vows accompany them, namely: 

I hope I can save all the beings in the universe from this igno¬ 
rance! 

I hope I can abstain from my inexhaustible desires of ignorance! 

I hope I can comprehend the boundless meaning of the doctrine 
of Buddha! 

I hope I can attain the highest enlightenment of Buddhaship! 

Out of these four classes of Nirvana the first and last are called 
the Nirvana of Mahayana, while the remaining are that of Ninayana. 

Principle. The fundamental principle of Buddha is the mind, 
which may be compared to a boundless sea into which the thousand 
rivers of Buddha’s doctrines flow; so it is Buddhism comprehends the 
whole mind. 

The mind is absolutely so grand and marvelous that even the 
heaven can never be compared to its highness, while the earth is too 
short for measuring its thickness. It has shape neither long nor short, 
neither round nor square. Its existence is neither inside nor outside, 
nor even in the middle part of bodily structure. It is purely colorless 
and formless and appears freely and actively in every place through¬ 
out the universe. But for the convenience of studying its nature we 
call it, True Mind of Absolute Unity (Shinnyo). 

It is told in Sutra that “all figures in the universe are stamped but 
by the one form.” What does that one form mean? It is nothing but 
another designation of Absolute Unity and that stamps out figures, 
means the innumerable phenomena bcfoie our eyes which aie the 
shadow or appearance of the Absolute Unity. 

Thus the mind and the figure (or color) reflect each other; so the 


180 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


mind cannot be seen without the figure and the figure cannot be seen 
without the mind. In other words, the figure and mind are standing 
relatively, so the figure cannot exist without the mind and the mind 
cannot exist without the figure. It is told in Sutra that “when we see 
color we see mind.” There is nothing but the absolute mind-unity 
throughout the universe. Every form of figure such as heaven, earth, 
mountains, rivers, trees, grasses, even a man, or what else it might be, 
is nothing but the grand personality of absolute unity. And as this 
absolute unity is the only object with which Buddha enlightens all 
kinds of existing beings, so it is clear that the principle of Buddha is 
the mind. 

Function. Three sacred virtues are essential functions of Buddha, 
which are the sacred wisdom, the graceful humanity, and the sublime 
courage. Of these the sacred wisdom is also called absolute wisdom. 
Wisdom in ordinary is a function of mind which has the power of judg¬ 
ing. When it is acting relatively to the lusts of mind it is called, in 
Buddhism, relative wisdom, and when standing alone, without relation 
to ignorance or superstition, it is called absolute wisdom. The Buddha 
with his absolute wisdom is called Monju Bosatsu, or Buddha of intel¬ 
lectual light (Chiye Kivo Butsu), or Myochi Mutorin (marvelous wis¬ 
dom, nothing comparable). 

The graceful humanity is a production of wisdom. When intel¬ 
lectual light shines, penetrating the clouds of ignorant superstition of 
all beings, they are free from suffering, misery, and endowed with an 
enlightened pleasure. It is told in Sutra: “The mind of Buddha is so 
full of humanity that he waits upon every being with an absolutely equal 
humanity.” 

The object of Buddha’s own enlightenment is to endow with pleas¬ 
ure and happiness all beings without making a slight distinction among 
them. So it is told in Hokke Sutra that “Now all these three worlds 
(which, as a whole, means the universe) are possessed of my hand, all 
beings upon them are my loving children. These worlds are full of 
innumerable pains, from which I alone can save them.” 

The word “humanity” in Buddhism is interpreted in two ways. 
One is to tender and bring something up, while the other to pity and 
save. Again, the humanity of Buddha is divided into three classes, 
namely, humanity relating to all kinds of beings, humanity relating to 
the appearance, and humanity universally common to all things. 

Now, firstly, humanity relating to all beings is the humanity with 
which Buddha comprehends the relation of all beings and saves them 
all alike, just as merciful parents would do their children. Secondly, 
humanity relating to the appearance is the humanity with which Buddha 
comprehends all phenomenal appearances which exist in relation to 
conditions and preserves them on the field of perfect unity, where there 
are no such distinctions as ego and non-ego, and no difference of 
beings. Thirdly, humanity which is universally common to all beings, 
is the humanity with which Buddha, appearing everywhere, saves all 
the beings according to their different conditions, as naturally as a 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


181 


lodestone attracts iron. This is one of the four holy vows of Buddha, 
that is: ‘I hope I can save all the beings in the universe from their 
ignorance.” 

Although the Buddha have these two virtues of wisdom and hu¬ 
manity, he could never save a being if he had not another sacred 
virtue, that is, courage. But he had such wonderful courage as to give 
up his imperial priesthood, full of luxury and pleasure, simply for the 
sake of fulfilling his desire of salvation. Not only this, he will not 
spare any trouble or suffering, hardship or severity, in order to crown 
himself with spiritual success. 

So Amita Buddha also said to himself that “firmness of mind will 
never be daunted amid an extreme of pains and hardships.” Truly, 
nothing can be done without courage. Courage is the mother of 
success. Courage is the foundation of all requisites for success. It is 
the same in the saying of Confucius, “a man who has humanity in his 
mind, has, as a rule, certain courage.” 

Among the disciples of the Buddha, Kwan-on represents humanity, 
Monju represents wisdom and Sei-shi represents courage; so it is 
very manifest that these three sacred virtues are essential functions of 
Buddha. 

Doctrine. After Shaku Buddha’s departure from this world two 
disciples, Kasho and Suan, collected the dictations of his teachings. 
This is the first appearance of Buddha’s book, and it was entitled 
“The Three Stores of Hinayana (Sanzo),” which means it contains 
three different classes of doctrine, namely, Kyo, or principle; Ritsu, 
or law, and Ron, or argument. 

Now, firstly, Kyo (Sanskrit Sutra) is a Chinese word which means 
permanent, so that it designates the principle which is permanent and 
is taken as the origin of the law of the Buddhist. Secondly, Ritsu 
(Sanskrit Vini) means a law or commandment, so that this portion of 
the stores contains the commandments founded by the Buddha to 
stop human evils. Thirdly, Ron (Sanskrit Abidarma) means argument or 
discussion, so this part contains all the arguments or discussions written 
by his disciples or followers. 

These three stores being a part of Buddhist works, there is another 
collection of three stores which is called that of Mahayana, compiled 
by the disciples of the Buddha Monju Miroku, Anan, etc. Both the 
Hinayana and Mahayana were prevailing together among the coun¬ 
tries of India for a long time after the Buddha’s departure. But when 
several hundred years were passed they were gradually divided into 
three parts. One of them has been spread toward northern countries 
such as Thibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, etc. One has been spread east¬ 
ward through China, Corea and Japan. Another branch of Buddhism is 
still remaining in the southern portion of Asiatic countries such as Cey¬ 
lon, Siam, etc. These three branches are respectively called Northern 
Mahayana, Eastern Mahayana and Southern Hinayana, and at present 
Eastern Mahayana, in Japan, is the most powerful of all the Buddhist 
branches. 



Buddhist and Aztec Idols. 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


183 


The difference between Mahayana and Hinayana is this: The 
former is to attain an enlightenment by getting hold of the intellectual 
constitution of Buddha, while the latter teaches how to attain Nirvana 
by obeying strictly the commandments given by Buddha. But if you 
would ask which is the principal part of Buddhism, I should say it is, 
of course, Mahayana, in which is taught how to become Buddha our¬ 
selves instead of Hinayana. 

There have been a great many Europeans and Americans who 
studied Buddhism with interest, but unfortunately they have never 
heard of Mahayana. They too hastily concluded that the true doc¬ 
trine of Buddhism is Hinayana, and that so-called Mahayana is noth¬ 
ing but a portion of Indian pure philosophy. They are wrong. They 
have entirely misunderstood. They have only poorly gained, with 
their scanty knowledge, a smattering of Buddhism. They are entirely 
ignorant of the boundless sea of Buddha’s doctrine rolling just beneath 
their feet. His preaching is really so great that the famous Chisha- 
daishi, of ancient China, divided it into five epochs of time and eight 
teachings. 

Right after Buddha attained his perfect enlightenment, he preached 
that all beings have the same nature and wisdom with him. This epoch 
is called Kegon. 

Then he preached the Hinayana doctrine of four Agons; that is, 
Cho Agon, Chu Agon, Zo Agon, Zochi Agon. This doctrine is 
divided into three classes, namely, Shomon, Engaku, and Bosaku. 
Buddha preached and taught to the Shomon class of his followers the 
principle of four glorious doctrines, according to which one can attain 
Nirvana of Hinayana. First, the world is full of sufferings and 
miseries; second, superstitions and lusts come one after another and 
induce us to misconceive birth and death; third, the way of attaining 
Nirvana is to get rid of pains; fourth, calmness and emptiness is the 
profound state of Nirvana. 

Next he preached to his followers of the Engaku class about the 
doctrine of twelve causes and conditions of human mind, which follow 
each other continually just like links in a chain—sudden appearance 
of idea, continuation of idea, intellect, uniting of intellect and body, 
completion of six organs, feeling, retaining, loving, catching, having 
birth, old age and death. In this class one is also able to attain Nir¬ 
vana by closely pursuing the course of mental culture. 

Then he taught six glorious behaviors to his followers of the 
Bosaku class, by which men become Buddha, such as charity, good 
behavior, forbearance, diligence, meditation, comprehension. These 
three teachings of Agon are what are called the three fundamental 

principles of Hinayana. . 

After he finished the teaching of Agon he began to preach the 

principle of Yuima, Shiyaku, Eyoga, Ryogon, etc. This was the means 
adopted by him to lead the disciples from Hinayana doctrine to 

Mahayana, and the time is called the Ho-do Epoch. 

Next comes the epoch of Mahayana, or the time when he taught 


184 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the personality of wisdom, that it is perfectly spiritual and entirely 
colorless and formless. By this teaching he led his higher disciples to 
comprehend the constitution of the spiritual world. 

And he at last brought his disciples to the highest summit of his 
doctrine, where he taught the perfect principle of absolute unity, the 
perfect enlightenment of true, grand Nirvana. This epoch is called 
the time of Hokke and Nehan (or Nirvana). 

The five epochs are so arranged according to the development of 
the Shaka Buddha’s preaching. His intention is simply to lead his 
followers into the glorious stage of true Nirvana, so he, for the sake of 
convenience, temporarily showed the truth at the first, and then pro¬ 
ceeded step by step to the absolutely highest truth. 

This is a brief explanation of the five epochs of Buddha’s preach¬ 
ing. Now let me speak a few words of the so-called eight teachings. 

First comes Ton, that is, sudden, and it is a teaching for the 
persons who have a quick perception. Second comes Zen, that is, by 
degrees, and it is a teaching for the class of beings who can only 
develope gradually, step by step. Third comes Himitsu, that is, 
secret, and it is the teaching which does not correspond to either of Ton 
or Zen, but which each understand separately. Fourth comes Fujo, that 
is, unfixed, and it is the teaching which corresponds to both Ton and 
Zen ; it means that the teaching is not limited to any particular class 
at all, but sometimes it is for the beings with quick perception, while 
sometimes it is for the beings of gradual progress, or, in other words, 
it preaches as the case might demand. Fifth comes Zo, that is, a store, 
and it is the teaching of three collections of principles, law and 
argument. Sixth comes Tsu, that is, correspondence, and it is the 
preaching which corresponds with those three, the fifth, the seventh and 
the eighth. Seventh comes Beku, that is, difference, and it is a teaching 
quite different from those with which the last corresponds. Eighth 
comes En, that is, perfection, and it is the teaching of perfect absoluteness. 

Of these eight teachings, the first four are called the four kinds of 
teaching manners, while the last four are called the four kinds of teach¬ 
ing principle. These eight teachings are the doorway through which 
the Buddhists enter the perfect enlightenment. 

Daizokyo, or “ complete work of Shaku Buddha,” is really a won¬ 
derful store of truth. Most students in Buddhism lose their courage 
and ambition at the first glance at this inexhaustible fountain of the 
truth, so profound in meaning. But still the pleasure once felt in 
digesting its meaning can never be forgotten, and will naturally lead 
scholars into deeper and deeper parts of the sea of spiritual tranquillity 
and calmness. They will at once understand that those deep problems 
are nothing but symbols of grand unity which is perfectly absolute 
from the human word. So, shortly before closing his eyes, Shaku 
Buddha said: “ I have never spoken a word until now, since I attained 
to perfect enlightenment.” If you understand what Shaku said you can 
easily see the greatness of Buddha or his attainment. 

I am not an orator, neither a great talker, myself, but I sincerely 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


185 


believe that your characteristic quick perception has made you under¬ 
stand what I have said hitherto, and that the miscomprehension you 
had about Buddha or Buddhism has been cleared off. But I hope you 
will not stay there satisfied with what you have hitherto understood. 
Go on, my dear brothers and sisters. Keep on, and you will at last 
succeed in crowning your future with the perfect enlightenment. It is 
for your own sake. Nay, not only for your own, but also for your 
neighbors. You occidental nations, working in harmony, have wrought 
out the civilization of the present century, but who will it be that 
establishes the spiritual civilization of the twentieth century? It must 
be you. 

You know very well that our sun-rising Island of Japan is noted 
for its beautiful cherry-tree flowers. But don’t you know that our 
native country is also the kingdom where the flowers of truth are 
blooming in great beauty and profusion at all seasons? Come to 
Japan. Don’t forget to take with you the truth of Buddhism. Ah, 
hail the glorious spiritual spring day, when the song and odor of truth 
invite you all out to our country for the search for holy paradise! 

I do not believe it totally uninteresting to give here a short account 
of our Indo Busseki Kofuku Society, of Japan. 

The object of this society is to restore and re-establish the holy 
places of Buddhism in India and to send out a certain number of 
Japanese priests to perform devotional services in them, and promote 
the convenience of pilgrims from Japan. These holy places are Buddha 
Gaya, where Buddha attained to the perfect enlightenment; Kapila- 
vastu, where Buddha was born; the Deer Park, where Buddha first 
preached, and Kusinagara, where Buddha entered Nirvana. 

Two thousand nine hundred and twenty years ago—that is, 1,026 
years before Christ—the world became honored—Prince Siddhartha 
was born in the palace of his father, King Suddhodana, in Kapilavastu, 
the capital of the kingdom Magadha. When he was nineteen years old 
he began to lament men’s inevitable subjection to the various suffer¬ 
ings of sickness, old age and death; and, discarding all his precious 
possessions and the heirship of the kingdom, he went into a mount¬ 
ain jungle to seek, by meditation and asceticism, the way of escape 
from these sufferings. After spending six years there and finding that 
the way he sought was not in asceticism, he went out from there and 
retired under the Bodhi tree, of Buddha Gaya, where at last, by 
profound meditation, he attained the supreme wisdom and became 
Buddha. The light of truth and mercy began to shine from him over 
the whole world, and the way of perfect emancipation was opened for 
all human beings, so that everyone can bathe in his blessings and walk 
in the way of enlightenment. 



CARVING IN HINDU TEMPLE. 






The World’s [)ebt to Buddha. 

By H. DHARMAPALA, of India. 


F I were asked under what sky the human mind 
has most fully developed some of its choicest 
gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest 
problems of life, and has found solutions of 
them which well deserve the attention of those 
who have studied Plato and Kant, I should 
point to India. If I were to ask myself from 
what literature we here in Europe may draw 
that corrective which is most wanted in order 
to make our inner life more perfect, more com¬ 
prehensive, more universal, and in fact more 
truly a human life, not for this life only, but for 
a transfigured and eternal life, again I should 
point to India. 

Ancient India twenty-five centuries ago was 
; scene of a religious revolution the greatest the 
world has ever seen. Indian society at that time had two large and 
distinguished religious foundations—the Szmanas and the Brahmanas. 
Famous teachers arose and, with their disciples, went among the peo¬ 
ple preaching and converting them to their respective views. Chief 
of them were Purana Kassapa, Makkhali, Ghosala, Ajita Kesahambala, 
Pakudha Kacckagara, Sanjaya Belattiputta and Niganta Nathaputta. 
Amidst the galaxy of these bright luminaries there appeared other 
thinkers and philosophers who, though they abstained from a higher 
claim of religious reformers, yet appeared as scholars of independent 
thought. Such were Bavari, Pissa Metteyya, Mettagua, Dunnaka, 
Dkotaka, Upasiva, Henaka, Todeyya, Sela Parukkha, Pokkharadsati, 
Maggadessakes, Maggajivins. These were all noted for their learning 
in their sacred Scriptures, in grammar, history, philosophy, etc. 

The air was full of a coming spiritual struggle. Hundreds of the 
most scholarly young men of noble families (Eulaputta) were leaving 
their homes in quest of truth; ascetics were undergoing the severest 
mortifications to discover the panacea for the evils of suffering. Young' 
dialecticians were wandering from place to place engaged in disputa¬ 
tions, some advocating skepticism as the best weapon to fight against 

187 




188 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the realistic doctrines of the day, some a sort of life which was the 
nearest way to getting rid of existence, some denying a future life. It 
was a time deep and many sided in intellectual movements. 

The sacrificial priest was powerful then as he is now. He was the 
mediator between God and man. Monotheism of the most crude type, 
fetichism from anthropomorphic deism to transcendental dualism was 
rampant. So was materialism from sensual epicureanism to trans¬ 
cendental nihilism. In the words of Dr. Oldenberg: “When the 
dialectic skepticism began to attach moral ideas, when a painful long¬ 
ing for deliverance from the burden of being was met by the first signs 
of moral decay, Buddha appeared.” 

“ The Saviour of the world, 

Prince Siddhartha styled on earth. 

In earth or heavens and hells imcomparable. 

All honored, wisest, best, most pitiful, 

The teacher of Nirvana and the law.” 

Oriental scholars, who had begun their researches in the domain 
of Indian literature at the beginning of this century, were put to great 
perplexity of thought at the discovery of the existence of a religion 
called after Buddha in the' Indian philosophical books. Sir William 
Jones, H. H. Wilson and Mr. Colbrooke were embarrassed in being 
unable to identify him. Dr. Marshman, in 1824, said that Buddha was 
the Egyptian Apis, and Sir William Jones solved the problem by say¬ 
ing that he was no other than the Scandinavian Woden. The barge 
of the early orientals was drifting into the sand banks of Sanskrit 
literature, when in June, 1837, the whole of the obscure history of 
India and Buddhism was made clear by the deciphering of the rock- 
cut edicts of Asoka the Great in Garnar, and Kapur-da-gini by that 
lamented archaeologist, James Pramsep, by the translation of the Pali 
Ceylon history into English by Turner, and by the discovery of Bud¬ 
dhist manuscripts in the temples of Mepal Ceylon and other Buddhist 
countries. In 1844 the first rational scientific and comprehensive 
account of the Buddhist religion was published by the eminent 
scholar, Eugene Purnouf. The key to the archives of this great relig¬ 
ion was also presented to the thoughtful people of Europe by this 
great scholar. 

With due gratitude I mention the names of the scholars to whose 
labors the present increasing popularity of the Buddha religion is due: 
Spence Hardy, Gogerly, Turner, Professor Childers, Dr. Davids, Dr. 
Oldenberg, Max Muller, Professor Jansboll and others. Pali scholar¬ 
ship began with the labors of the late Dr. Childers, and the western 
world is indebted to Dr. Davids, who is indefatigable in his labors in 
bringing the rich stores of hidden wisdom from the minds of Pali lit¬ 
erature. To two agencies the present popularity of Buddhism is due: 
Sir Edwin Arnold’s incomparable epic, “The Light of Asia,” and the 
theosophical society. 

“The irresistible charm which influences the thinking world to 
study Buddhism, is the unparalleled life of its glorified founder. His 


189 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


teaching has found favor with every one who has studied his history. 
His doctrines are the embodiment of universal love. Not only our 
philologists, but even those who are prepossessed against his faith, 
have ever found but words of praise,” says H. G. Blavatsky. “Noth¬ 
ing can be higher and purer than his social and moral code.” “That 
moral code, says Max Muller, “taken by itself is one of the most per¬ 
fect which the world has ever known.” “The more I learn to know 
Buddha,” says Professor Jansboll, “the more I admire him.” “We 
must,” says Professor Barth, “set clearly before us the admirable figure 
which detaches itself from it, that finished model of calm and sweet 
• majesty, of infinite tenderness for all that breathes, and compassion 
for all that suffers, of perfect moral freedom and exemption from 
every prejudice. It was to save others that he who was one day to be 
Gautama disdained to tread sooner in the way of Nirvana, and that he 
chose to become Buddha at the cost of countless numbers of supple¬ 
mentary existences.” 

“The singular forc$,” says Professor Bloomfield, “of the great 
teacher’s personality is unquestioned. The sweetness of his character 
and the majesty of his personality stand forth upon the background 
of India’s religious history with a degree of vividness which is strongly 
enhanced by the absence of other religions of any great importance.” 
And even Bartholemy St. Hilaire, misjudging Buddhism as he does, 
says: “I do not hesitate to say that there is not among the founders 
of religions a figure either more pure or more touching than that of 
Buddha. He is the perfect model of all the virtues he preaches; his 
self-abnegation, his charity, his unalterable sweetness of disposition 
do not fail him for one instant.” That poet of Buddhism, the sweet 
singer of the “Light of Asia,” Sir Edwin Arnold, thus estimates the 
place of Buddhism and Buddha in history: “In point of age most 
other creeds are youthful compared with this venerable religion, which 
has in it the eternity of a universal hope, the immortality of a bound¬ 
less love, an indestructible element of faith in the final good and the 
proudest assertion ever made of human freedom.” 

“Infinite is the wisdom of the Buddha. Boundless is the love of 
Buddha to all that live.” So say the Buddhist scriptures. Buddha is 
called the Mahamah Karumika, which means the all merciful Lord 
who has compassion on all that live. To the human mind Buddha’s 
wisdom and mercy is incomprehensible. The foremost and greatest 
of his disciples, the blessed Sariputta, even he has acknowledged that 
he could not gauge the Buddha’s wisdom and mercy. 

Already the thinking minds of Europe and America have offered 
their tribute of admiration to his divine memory. Professor Huxley 
says: “Gautama got rid of even that shade of a shadow of permanent 
existence by a metaphysical tour de force of great interest to the stu¬ 
dent of philosophy, seeing that it supplies the wanting half of Bishop 
Berkeley’s well-known idealist argument. It is a remarkable indication 
of the subtlety of Indian speculation that Gautama should have seen 
deeper than the greatest of modern idealists.” 


190 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The tendency of enlightened thought of the day, all the world 
over, is not toward theology, but philosophy and psychology. The 
bark of theological dualism is drifting into danger. The fundamental 
principles of evolution and monism are being accepted by the thought¬ 
ful. The crude conceptions of anthropomorphic deism are being rel¬ 
egated into the limbo of oblivion Lip service of prayer is giving place 
to a life of altruism. Personal self-sacrifice is gaining the place of a 
vicarious sacrifice. History is repeating itself. Twenty-five centuries 
ago India witnessed an intellectual and religious revolution which cul¬ 
minated in the overthrow of monotheism and priestly selfishness, and 
the establishment of a synthetic religion. This was accomplished 
through Sakya Muni. Today the Christian world is going through the 
same process. 

It is difficult to properly comprehend the system of Buddha by a 
spiritual study of its doctrines. And especially by those who have 
been trained to think that there is no truth in other religions. When 
the scholar Vachcha, approaching Buddha, demanded a complete 
elucidation of his doctrines, he said: “This doctrine is hard to see, 
hard to understand, solemn and sublime, not resting on dialectic, sub¬ 
tle, and perceived only by the wise. It is hard for you to learn who 
are of different views, different ideas of fitness, different choice, 
trained and taught in another school/’ 

A systematic study of Buddha’s doctrine has not yet been made 
by the western scholars, hence the conflicting opinions expressed by 
them at various times. The notion once held by the scholars that it 
is a system of materialism has been exploded. The positivists of 
France found it a positivism. Buckner and his school of material¬ 
ists thought it was a materialistic system. Agnostics found in Buddha 
an agnostic, and Dr Rhys Davids, the eminent Pali scholar, used to 
call him the “agnostic philosopher of India.” Some scholars have 
found an expressed monotheism therein. Arthur Lillie, another stu¬ 
dent of Buddhism, thinks it a theistic system. Pessimists identify it 
with Schopenhaur’s pessimism. The late Mr. Buckle identified it with 
the pantheism of India. Some have found in it a monoism, and the 
latest dictum is Professor Huxley’s, that it is an idealism supplying 
“the wanting half of BishopBerkeley’s well-knowm idealist argument.” 
Dr. Eikl says that “ Buddhism is a system of vast magnitude, for it 
embraces all the various branches of science, which our western 
nations have been long accustomed to divide for separate study. It 
embodies, in one living structure, grand and peculiar views of physical 
science, refined and subtle theories on abstract metaphysics, an edifice 
of fanciful mysticism, a most elaborate and far reaching system of 
practical morality, and, finally, a church organization as "broad in its 
principles and as finely wrought in its most intricate network as any in 
the world. All this is, moreover, confined in such a manner that the 
essence and substance of the whole may be compressed into a few 
formulas and symbols plain and suggestive enough to be grasped by 
the most simple-minded ascetic, and yet so full of philosophic depths 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


191 


as to provide rich food for years of meditation to the metaphysician, 
the poet, the mystic, and pleasant pasturage for the most fiery imag¬ 
ination of any poetical dreamer.” 

In the religion of Buddha is found a comprehensive system of 
ethics, and a transcendental metaphysic embracing a sublime psychol¬ 
ogy. To the simple minded it offers a code of morality, to the earnest 
student a system of pure thought. But the basic doctrine is the self¬ 
purification of man. 

Spiritual progress is impossible for him who does not lead a life 
of purity and compassion. The superstructure has to be built on the 
basis of a pure life. So long as one is fettered by selfishness, passion, 
prejudice, fear, so long the doors of his higher nature are closed against 
the truth. The rays of the sunlight of truth enter the mind of him 
who is fearless to examine truth, who is free from prejudice, who is not 
tied by the sensual passion, and who has reasoning faculties to think. 
One has to be an atheist in the sense employed by Max Muller: 

“There is an atheism which is not death; there is another which is 
the very life blood of all true faith. It is the power of giving up what, 
in our best, our most honest movements, we know to be no longer 
true. It is the readiness to replace the less perfect, however dear, 
however sacred it may have been to us, by the more perfect, however 
much it may be detested as yet by the world. It is the true self-sur¬ 
render, the true self-sacrifice, the truest trust in truth, the truest faith.” 

Without that atheism no new religion, no reform, no reformation, 
no resuscitation would ever have been possible; without that atheism 
no new life is possible for any one of us. The strongest emphasis has 
been put by Buddha on the supreme importance of having an un¬ 
prejudiced mind before we start on the road of investigation of truth. 
The least attachment of the mind to preconceived ideas is a positive 
hindrance to the acceptance of truth. Prejudice, passion, fear of ex¬ 
pression of one’s convictions and ignorance are the four biases that 
have to be sacrificed at the threshold. To be born as a human being 
is a glorious privilege. Man’s dignity consists in his capability to 
reason and think and to live up to the highest ideal of pure life, of 
calm thought, of wisdom, without extraneous interventions. Buddha 
says that man can enjoy in this life a glorious existence, a life of indi¬ 
vidual freedom, of fearlessness and compassionateness. This dignified 
ideal of manhood may be attained by the humblest, and this consum¬ 
mation raises him above wealth and royalty ; “He that is compassion¬ 
ate and observes the law is My disciple. 

Human brotherhood forms the fundamental teaching of Buddha 
—universal love and sympathy with all mankind and with animal life. 
Every one is enjoined to love all beings as a mother loves her only 
child and takes care of it even at the risk of her life. The realization 
of the ideal of brotherhood is obtained when the first stage of holi¬ 
ness is realized. The idea of separation is destroyed and the onenfess 
of life is recognized. There is no pessimism in the teachings of 
Buddha, for he strictly enjoins on his holy disciples not even to sug- 


4 



Buddhist Priest, Siam 




THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD . 


193 


gest to others that life is not worth living. On the contrary, the use¬ 
fulness of life is emphasized for the sake of doing good to self and 
humanity. 

From the fetich worshiping savage to the highest type of hu¬ 
manity man naturally yearns for something higher. ' And it is for this 
reason that Buddha inculcated the necessity for self-reliance and inde¬ 
pendent thought. To guide humanity in the right path, a Tathagata 
(Messiah) appears from time to time. 

In the sense of a supreme Creator, Buddha says that there is no 
such being, accepting the doctrine of evolution as the only true one, 
with corollary, the law of cause and effect. He condemns the idea of 
a Creator, but the supreme God of the Brahmans and minor gods are 
accepted. But they are subject to the law of cause and effect. This 
supreme God is all love, all merciful, all gentle, and looks upon all 
beings with equanimity. Buddha teaches men to practice these four 
supreme virtues. But there is no difference between the perfect man 
and this supreme God of the present world. 

The teachings of the Buddha on evolution are clear and expansive. 
We are asked to look upon the cosmos “ as a continuous process un¬ 
folding itself in regular order in obedience to natural laws We see in 
it all not a yawning chaos restrained by the constant interference from 
without of a wise and beneficent external power, but avast aggregateof 
original elements perpetually working out their own fresh redistribu¬ 
tion in accordance with their own inherent energies He regards the 
cosmos as an almost infinite collection of material, animated by an 
almost infinite sum total of energy, * which is called Akasa I have 
used the above definition of evolution, as given by Grant Allen in his 
“ Life of Darwin,” as it beautifully expresses the generalized idea of 
Buddhism. We do not postulate that man’s evolution began from the 
protoplasmic stage, but we are asked not to speculate on the origin of 
life, on the origin of the law of cause and effect, etc. So far as this 
great law is concerned we say that it controls the phenomena of human 
life as well as those of external nature, the whole knowable universe 
forms one undivided whole. 

Buddha promulgated his system of philosophy after having studied 
all religions. And in the Brahma-jola sutta sixty-two creeds are dis¬ 
cussed. In the Kalama, the sutta, Buddha says: 

“Do not believe in what ye have heard. Do not believe in tradi¬ 
tions, because they have been handed down for many generations. Do 
not believe in anything because it is renowned and spoken of by many. 
Do not believe merely because the written statement of some old sage 
is produced. Do not believe in conjectures. Do not believe in that 
as truth to which you have become attached by habit. Do not believe 
merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Often observa¬ 
tion and analysis, when the result agrees with reason, is conducive to 
the good and gain of one and all. Accept and live up to it. 

To the ordinary householder, whose highest happiness consists in 
being wealthy here and in heaven hereafter, Buddha inculcated a sim- 

13 


194 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


pie code of morality. The student of Buddha’s religion from destroy¬ 
ing life, lays aside the club and weapon. He is modest and full of 
pity. He is compassionate to all creatures that have life. He abstains 
from theft, and he passes his life in honesty and purity of heart. He 
lives a life of chastity and purity He abstains from falsehood and 
injures not his fellowman by deceit. Putting away slander he abstains 
from calumny. He is a peacemaker, a speaker of words that make for 
peace. Whatever word is humane, pleasant to the ear, lovely, reaching 
to the heart, such are the words he speaks. He abstains from harsh 
language. He abstains from foolish talk, he abstains from intoxicants 
and stupifying drugs. 

The advance student of the religion of Buddha, when he has faith 
in him, thinks “ full of hindrances in household life is a path defiled 
by passion. Pure as the air is the life of him who has renounced all 
worldly things How difficult it is for the man who dwells at home 
to live the higher life in all its fullness, in all its purity, in all its 
freedom. Let me then cut off my hair and beard, let me clothe 
myself in orange-colored robes, let me go forth from a household life 
into the homeless state.” Then before long, forsaking his portion of 
wealth, forsaking his circle of relatives, he cuts off his hair and beard, 
he clothes himself in the orange-colored robes and he goes into the 
homeless state, and then he passes a life of self-restraint, according to 
the rules of the order of the blessed one. Uprightness is his object 
and he sees danger in the least of those things he should avoid. He 
encompasses himself with holiness, in word and deed. He sustains 
his life by means that are quite pure. Good is his conduct, guarded 
the door of his senses, mindful and self-possessed, he is altogether 
happy. 

The student of pure religion abstains from earning a livelihood 
by the practice of low and lying arts, viz., all divination, interpreta¬ 
tion of dreams, palmistry, astrology, crystal prophesying, charms of 
all sorts. Buddha also says: 

“Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard in all the four 
directions without difficulty, even so of all things that have life, there 
is not one that the student passes by or leaves aside, but regards them 
all with mind set free and deep-felt pity, sympathy and equanimity. 
He lets his mind pervade the whole world with thoughts of love.” 

To realize the unseen is the goal of the student of Buddha’s teach¬ 
ings, and such a one has to lead a?n absolutely pure life. Buddha 
says: 

‘Let him fulfill all righteousness, let him be devoted to that quietude 
of heart which springs from within, let him not drive back the ecstasy 
of contemplation, let him look through things, let him be much alone. 
Fulfill all righteousness for the sake of the living, and for the sake of 
the blessed ones that are dead and gone.” 

Thought transference, thought reading, clairvoyance, projection 
the sub-conscious self^and all the higher branches of psychical science 
that just now engage the thoughtful attention of psychical researchers 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


195 


are within the reach of him who fulfills all righteousness, who is de¬ 
voted to solitude and to contemplation. 

Charity, observance of moral rules, purifying the mind, making 
others participate in the good work that one is doing, co-operating 
with others in doing good, nursing the sick, giving gifts to the deserving 
ones, hearing all that is good and beautiful, making others learn the 
rules of morality, accepting the laws of cause and effect are the com¬ 
mon appanage of all good men. 

Prohibited employments include slave dealing, sale of weapons of 
warfare, sale of poisons, sale of intoxicants, sale of flesh— all deemed 
the lowest of professions. 

The five kinds of wealth are: Faith, pure life, receptivity of the 
mind to all that is good and beautiful, liberality and wisdom. Those 
who possess these five kinds of wealth in their past incarnations are 
influenced by the teachings of Buddha. 

Besides these, Buddha says in his universal precepts: “He who is 
faithful, and leads the life of a householder, and possesses the follow¬ 
ing four (Dhammas) virtues, truth, justice, firmness and liberality— 
such a one does not grieve when passing away. Pray ask other teachers 
and philosophers far and wide, whether there is found anything greater 
than fruth, self-restraint, liberality and forbearance.” 

The pupil should minister to his teacher; he should rise up in his 
presence, wait upon him, listen to all that he says with respectful 
attention, perform the duties necessary for his personal comfort, and 
carefully attend to his instruction. The teacher should show affection 
for his pupil. He trains him in virtue and good manners, carefully 
instructs him, imparts to him a knowledge of the sciences and wisdom 
of the ancients, speaks well of him to relatives and guards him from 
danger. 

The honorable man ministers to his friends and relatives by pre¬ 
senting gifts, by courteous language, by promoting as his equals and 
by sharing with them his prosperity. They should watch over him 
when he has negligently exposed himself, guard his property when he 
is careless, assist him in difficulties, stand by him and help to provide 
for his family. 

The master should minister to the wants of his servants, as depend¬ 
ents; he assigns them labor suitable to their strength, provides for 
their comfortable support; he attends them in sickness, causes them 
to partake of any extraordinary delicacy he may obtain and makes 
them occasional presents. The servants should manifest their attach¬ 
ment to the master; they rise before him in the morning and retire 
later to rest; they do not purloin his property, do their work cheer¬ 
fully and actively and are respectful in their behavior toward him. 

In this world generosity, mildness of speech, public spirit and 
courteous behavior are worthy of respect under all circumstances and 
will be valuable in all places. If these be not possessed the mother 
will receive neither honor nor support from the son, neither will the 
father receive respect nor honor. Buddha also says: 


196 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


“ Know that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world, 
fully enlightened, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and good¬ 
ness, happy with knowledge of the world, unsurpassed as a guide to 
erring mortal, a teacher of gods and men, a blessed Buddha. He, by 
himself, thoroughly understands and sees, as it were face to face, this 
universe, the world below with all its spirits and the worlds above, and 
all creatures, all religious teachers, gods and men, and he then makes 
his knowledge known to others. The truth doth he proclaim, both in 
its letter and its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely 
in its consummation; the higher life doth he proclaim in all its purity 
and in all its perfectness. 

First. He is absolutely free from all passions, commits no evil 
even in secrecy and is the embodiment of perfection. He is above 
doing anything wrong. 

Second. Self-introspection—by this has he reached the state of 
supreme enlightenment. 

Third. By means of his divine eye he looks back to the remotest 
past and future. Knows the way of emancipation, and is accomplished 
in the three great branches of divine knowledge, and has gained per¬ 
fect wisdom. He is in possession of all psychic powers, always will¬ 
ing to listen, full of energy, wisdom and dhyana. 

Fourth. He has realized eternal peace and walks in the perfect 
path of virtue. 

Fifth. He knows three states of existence. 

Sixth. He is incomparable in purity and holiness. 

Seventh. He is teacher of gods and men. 

Eighth. He exhorts gods and men at the proper time, according 
to their individual temperaments. 

Ninth. He is the supremely enlightened teacher and the perfect 
embodiment of all the virtues he teaches. The two characteristics of 
Buddha are wisdom and compassion.” 

Buddha also gave a warning to his followers when he said: 

“He who is not generous, who is fond of sensuality, who is disturbed 
at heart, who is of uneven mind, who is not reflective, who is not of 
calm mind, who is discontented at heart, who has no control over his 
senses—such a disciple is far from me, though he is in body near me.” 

The attainment of salvation is by the perception of self through 
charity, purity, self-sacrifice, self-knowledge, dauntless energy, pa¬ 
tience, truth, resolution, love and equanimity. The last words of 
Buddha were these: 

“ Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be ye a refuge to yourselves; betake 
yourself to an eternal voyage; hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold 
fast as a refuge to the truth; look not for refuge to any one besides 
yourselves. Learn ye, then, that knowledge which I have attained 
and have declared unto you and walk ye in it, practice and increase in 
order that the path of holiness may last and long endure for the bless¬ 
ing of many people, to the relief of the world, to the welfare, the 
blessing, the joy of gods and men.” 


1 he Law of Qause and J^ffect, as J aught 

by 3 u ddha. 


By SHAKU SOYEN, of Japan. 



7 we open our eyes and look at the universe 
we observe the sun and moon and the stars on 
the sky; mountains, rivers, plants, animals, 
fishes and birds on the earth. Cold and warmth 
come alternately; shine and rain change from 
time to time without ever reaching an end. 
Again let us close our eyes and camly reflect 
upon ourselves. From morning to evening we 
are agitated by the feelings of pleasure and 
pain, love and hate; sometimes full of ambition 
and desire, sometimes called to the utmost ex¬ 
citement of reason and will. Thus the action 
of mind is like an endless issue of a spring of 
water. As the phenomena of the external 
world are various and marvelous, so is the internal 
attitude of human mind. Shall we ask for the 
explanation, of these marvelous phenomena? Why is the universe in 
a constant flux? Why do things change? Why is the mind subjected 
to a constant agitation? For these Buddhism offers only one explana¬ 
tion, namely, the law of cause and effect. 

Now let us proceed to understand the nature of this law, as taught 

by Buddha himself: 

First. The complex nature of cause. 

Second. An endless progression of the causal law. 

Third. The causal law in terms of the three worlds. 

Fourth. Self-formation of cause and effect. 

Fifth. Cause and effect as the law of nature. 

First. The complex nature of cause. Acertain phenomenon cannot 
arise from a single cause,but it must have several conditions; in other 
words, no effect can arise unless several causes combine together. 
Take for example a case of fire. You may say its cause is oil or fuel; 
neither qiI nor fuel alone can give rise to a flame. Atmosphere, 

197 



198 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


space and several other conditions, physical or mechanical, are neces¬ 
sary for the rise of a flame. All these necessary conditions combined 
together can be called the cause of a flame. This is only an example 
for the explanation of the complex nature of cause, but the rest may 
be inferred. 

Second. An endless progression of the causal law. A cause must 
be preceded by another cause, and an effect must be followed by an¬ 
other effect. Thus, if we investigate the cause of a cause, the past of 
a past, by tracing back even to an eternity, we shall never reach the 
first cause. The assertion that there is the first cause is contrary to the 
fundamental principle of nature, since a certain cause must have an 
origin in some preceding cause or causes, and there is no cause which 
is not an effect. From the assumption that a cause is an effect of a 
preceding cause, which is also preceded by another, thus, ad infinitum, 
we infer that there is no beginning in the universe. As there is no 
effect which is not a cause, so there is no cause which is not an effect. 
Buddhism considers the universe has no beginning, no end. Since, even 
if we trace back to an eternity, absolute cause cannot be found, so we 
come to the conclusion that there is no end in the universe. Like as 
the waters of rivers evaporate and form clouds, and the latter changes 
its form into rain, thus returning once more into the original form of 
waters, the causal law is in a logical circle changing from cause to 
effect, effect to cause. 

Third. The causal law in terms of three worlds, namely, past,- 
present and future. All the religions apply more or less the causal law 
in the sphere of human conduct, and remark that the pleasure and 
happiness of one’s future life depend upon the purity of his present life. 
But what is peculiar to Buddhism is, it applies the law not only to the 
relation of present and future life, but also past and present. As the 
facial expressions of each individual are different from those of others, 
men are graded by the different degrees of wisdom, talent, wealth and 
birth. It is not education nor experience alone that can make a man 
wise, intelligent and wealthy, but it depends upon one’s past life. What 
are the causes or conditions which produce such a difference? To 
explain it in a few words, I say, it owes its origin to the different qual¬ 
ity of actions which we have done in our past life, namely, we are here 
enjoying or suffering the effect of what we have done in our past life. 
If you closely observe the conduct of your fellow beings, you will notice 
that each individual acts different from the others. From this we can 
infer that in future life each one will also enjoy or suffer the result of his 
own actions done in this existence. As the pleasure and pain of one’s 
present actions, so the happiness or misery of our future world will be 
the result of our present action. 

Fourth. Self-formation of cause and effect. We enjoy happiness 
and suffer misery, our own actions being causes; in other words, there 
is no other cause than our own actions which make us happy or un¬ 
happy. Now let us observe the different attitudes of human life; one 
is happy and others feel unhappy. Indeed, even among the members 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


199 


of the same family, we often notice a great diversity in wealth and for¬ 
tune. Thus various attitudes of human life can be explained by the 
self-formation of cause and effect. There is no one in the universe but 
one’s self who rewards or punishes him. The diversity in future stages 
will be explained by the same doctrine. This is termed in Buddhism 
the “self-deed and self-gain,” or “self-make and self-receive.” Heaven 
and hell are self-made. God did not provide you with a hell, but you 
yourself. The glorious happiness of future life will be the effect of 
present virtuous actions. 

Fifth. Cause and effect as the law of nature. According to the 
different sects of Buddhism, more or less, different views are entertained 
in regard to the law of causality, but so far they agree in regarding it 
as the law of nature, independent of the will of Buddha, and much less 
of the will of human beings. The law exists for an eternity, without 
beginning, without end. Things grow and decay, and this is caused, 
not by an external power, but by an internal force which is in things 
themselves as an innate attribute. This internal law acts in accordance 
with the law of cause and effect, and thus appear immense phenomena 
of the universe. Just as the clock moves by itself without any inter¬ 
vention of any external force, so is the progress of the universe. 

We are born in the world of variety; some are poor and unfortu¬ 
nate, others are wealthy and happy. The state of variety will be 
repeated again and again in our future lives. But to whom shall we 
complain of our misery? To none but ourselves. We reward our¬ 
selves; so shall we do in our future life. If you ask me who deter¬ 
mined the length of our life, I say, the law of causality. Who made 
him happy and made me miserable? The law of causality. Bodily 
health, material wealth, wonderful genius, unnatural suffering are the 
infallible expressions of the law of causality which governs every 
particle of the universe, every portion of human conduct. Would you 
ask me about the Buddhist morality? I reply, in Buddhism the 
source of moral authority is the causal law. Be kind, be just, be 
humane, be honest, if you desire to crown your future. Dishonesty, 
cruelty, inhumanity, will condemn you to a miserable fall. 

As I have already explained to you, our sacred Buddha is not the 
creator of this law of nature, but he is the first discoverer of the law 
who led thus his followers to the height of moral perfection. Who 
shall utter a word against him? Who discovered the first truth of the 
universe? Who has saved and will save by his noble teachings the 
millions and millions of the falling human beings? Indeed, too much 
approbation could not be uttered to honor his sacred name. 



Interior of Buddhist Temple, Canton, China. 









































VIII. 

ZOROASTRIANISM. 



Zoroastrians, Parsees, Fire- 

Worshipers. 

E Zoroastrians, called also Guebres. Herodo¬ 
tus, about 450 B. C., said “ the Persians think 
fire to be a god.” Strabo, about 50 A. D., says 
“They peculiarly sacrifice to fire and water, 
placing dry wood on the fire stript of its bark, 
with fat thrown upon it.” The Rev. Dr. Wil¬ 
son, of Bombay, alleges that “they actually 
address it in supplication, as if it were sen¬ 
tient, intelligent, divine, and omnipresent, and 
ready to hear, bless, assist, and deliver; as is 
clearly proved by many passages of the Van- 
didad and by several of the Yasts and Has of 
the Yacna and Niashes, to be found in the 
works esteemed sacred, and used by the Par- 
sis (Parsees) in their daily prayers” ( Wilson: 
Sermon to the Parsis , 3d ed. (1847), PP- 60, 61). 
No prominent race now in India has become more rapidly modified 
by intercourse with Europeans, and Prof. Max Muller believes that 
the so-called Fire-worshipers do not worship the fire, but regard it 
like other great material phenomena, as an emblem of the Divine 
power. This, as Tylor states, is probably now true of the intelligent 
Parsees; how far it is so of those less enlightened remains to be ascer¬ 
tained. The Fire-worshipers have, in the course of their history, suf¬ 
fered the most cruel persecution from the Mohammedans, and the 
leading features of the picture drawn of this in the part of Moore’s 
Lalla Rookh called the Fire-worshipers , is true to history. 

Fire-worship.—The worship or veneration of fire, a very old and 
very widely extended form of faith. The real and absolute worship of 
fire exists in two forms, the first belonging to fetichism and the sec¬ 
ond to polytheism. In the former the rude barbarian adores the actual 
flame as if it was the highest object he could adore; in the latter he 
regards any individual fire as a manifestation of one great elemental 
being—the Fire-god. It seems to have existed among the American 
Indians, the Asiatics and Turanians generally, the Assyrians, Chalde¬ 
ans, Phoenicians, and other Syro-Arabians, and finally among the 

203 




204 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Aryans. Among the last named race, the Vedic Hindoos worshiped 
Agni, Fire (cf. Lat. ignis , which is essentially the same word). The 
first word of the first Vedic hymn is his name in an oblique case, 
Agnim. The first sentiment is “ Agni, I entreat, divine appointed 
priest of sacrifice.” The classical religions bring prominently into 
view the special deities of Fire: Among the Greeks, Hephaistos (Vul¬ 
can), and the virgin goddess Hestia, the divine hearth, who was wor¬ 
shiped by the Romans under the name of Vesta, and whose sacred 
fire was tended incessantly in her temple in the Forum by the vestal 
virgins. One great branch of F.re-worship was Sun-worship.— Ameri- 
ca?i Eiicyclopcedic Dictionary. 

Zend-Avesta.—The sacred books of the Zoroastrians, Magians, 
Guebers, or Parsees, ascribed to Zoroaster himself, and reverenced as a 
bible or rule of faith and practice. They consist of several divisions: 
The Yazna, a sort of sacrificial ritual, consisting of hymns and prayers, 
contains the five gathas in the older dialect; the Visparad is a collec¬ 
tion of sacrificial prayers in later Zend. The Yashts are later collec¬ 
tions of prayers, consisting of particular invocations of angels, etc., 
mixed with legends; the Vendidad contains the religious, civil and 
criminal code of the Zoroastrians. The immortality of the soul, a 
future state of rewards and punishments, and the resurrection of the 
body are taught in the Zend religion. 

The Avesta (B. C. 1000-500), the Zoroastrian sacred book, 
consists of five gathas, or songs and prayers, a code of laws, and 
hymns. Professor Monier Williams says: “ Fire and the sun are vener¬ 
ated in both; but Zoroaster taught that the Supreme Being created 
two inferior beings—Ormuzd (Ahuramazda) the good Spirit, and 
Ariman, the evil. The former will destroy the latter. This dualistic 
principle is foreign to the Veda” (Indian Wisdom. Introd. p. xviii.i). 

“The doctrines of the Zoroastrian religion respecting death, and 
the fate of mankind after death, are a very remarkable and interest¬ 
ing part of it. Sickness and death were supposed to be the work of 
the malignant powers. The dead body had been gotten by the 
demons into their own peculiar possession. But the different nature 
and separate destiny of the soul were fully believed in. If the person 
of whose mortal form the demons had obtained possession had been 
during life a sincere worshiper of Mazda, if he had abhorred evil and 
striven after truth and purity, then the powers of evil had no hold 
upon his soul; this, after hovering for a time about its former tene¬ 
ment, hoping for a reunion with it, was supposed to pass away beyond 
the eastern mountains, from which the sun rises, to the paradise of the 
holy and benevolent gods; the souls of the unbelieving and the evil¬ 
doers, however, were not deemed worthy of that blessedness, and were 
thought, so it seems, to be destroyed with the body. It cannot be 
said, however, that this belief in immortality, and, to a certain extent, 
in a future state of rewards and punishments, formed a prominent 
feature of the Iranian religion, any more than of the Indian.” 

“ Zoroastrianism teaches that God has provided the soul with 
every kind of aid to perform his work successfully. The following are 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


205 


a few of them: ‘ khratu,’ knowledge; ‘ chisti,’ wisdom; ‘ ushi ’ ( = hosh), 
sense; ‘ manas,’ mind, thought; ‘ vachas,’ speech; ‘ shkyaothna,’ action; 
4 vaso ’ or ‘ kama ’ (kam khutai), free will; ‘daena,’ religious con¬ 
science; 4 Ahu,’ practical conscience; 4 fravashi,’ the guiding spirit; 
4 baodhas,’ consciousness, memory, etc.; over and above them 4 Daena,’ 
the revealed religion. 

“ The soul having been thus furnished with every necessary aid, 
he is expected to come out successfully in his moral career and get 
his reward. But if he fails, he cannot ask for or expect a vicarious 
salvation, which is unknown in the Zoroastrian religion.” 








Mosque of Mahmoudleh 













3 e lief and (Ceremonies of the pollowers 

of Zoroaster. 

By JINANJI JAMSHEDJI MODI, of India. 


IE greatest good that a Parliament of Relig¬ 
ions, like the present can do is to establish 
what Professor Max Muller calls “that great 
golden dawn of truth ‘ that there is a religion 
behind all religions The learned professor 
very rightly says that “ Happy is the man who 
knows that truth in these days of materialism 
and atheism.” If this Parliament of Religions 
does nothing else but spread the knowledge 
of this golden truth, and thus make a large 
number of men happy, it will immortalize its 
name. The object of my paper is to take a 
little part in the noble efforts of this great 
gathering, to spread the knowledge of that 
golden truth from a Parsee point of view. The 
Parsees of India are the followers of Zoro¬ 
astrianism, of the religion of Zoroaster, a religion which was for 
centuries both the state religion and the national religion of ancient 
Persia. As Professor Max Muller says: 

“There were periods in the history of the world when the worship 
of Ormuzd threatened to rise triumphant on the ruins of the temples 
of all other gods. If the battles of Marathon and Salamis had been 
lost and Greece had succumbed to Persia, the state religion of the 
empire of Cyrus, which was the worship of Ormuzd, might have 
become the religion of the whole civilized world. Persia had absorbed 
the Assyrian and Babylonian empires; Jews were either in Persian 
captivity or under Persian sway at home; the sacred monuments of 
Egypt had been mutilated by the hands of Persian soldiers. The 
edicts of the king—the king of kings—were sent to India, to Greece, 
to Scythia and to Egypt, and if ‘by the grace of Ahura Mazda’ Darius 
had crushed the liberty of Greece, the purer faith of Zoroaster might 
easily have superseded the Olympian fables.” 

207 




208 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


With the overthrow of the Persian monarchy under its last 
Sassanian king, Yazdagard, at the battle of Nehavand, in A. D. 642, 
the religion received a check at the hands of the Arabs, who, with 
sword in one hand and Koran in the other, made the religion of Islam 
both the state religion and national religion of the country. But 
many of those who adhered to the faith of their fathers quitted their 
ancient fatherland for the hospitable shores of India. The modern 
Parsees of India are the descendants of those early settlers. As a for¬ 
mer governor of Bombay said, “Their position is unique—a handful 
of persons among the teeming millions of India, and yet who not only 
have preserved their ancient race with the utmost purity, but also their 
religion absolutely unimpaired by contact with others.” 

In the words of Rt. Rev. Dr. Meurin, the learned bishop (vicar 
apostolic) of Bombay, in 1885, the Parsees are “a people who have 
chosen to relinquish their venerable ancestors’ homesteads rather than 
abandon their ancient religion, the founder of which lived no less than 
3,000 years ago, a people who for a thousand years have formed in the 
midst of the great Hindu people, not unlike an island in the sea, a 
quite separate and distinct nation, peculiar and remarkable as for its 
race, so for its religious and social life and customs.” Prof. Max 
Muller says of the religion of the Parsees: 

“Though every religion is of real and vital interest in its earliest 
state only, yet its later development, too, with all its misunderstand¬ 
ings, faults and corruptions, offers many an instructive lesson to the 
thoughtful student of history. Here is a religion, one of the most 
ancient of the world, once the state religion of the most powerful 
empire, driven away from its native soil and deprived of political influ¬ 
ence, without even the prestige of a powerful or enlightened priest¬ 
hood, and yet professed by a handful of exiles—men of wealth, intelli¬ 
gence and moral worth in western India—with unhesitating fervor such 
as is seldom to be found in larger religious communities. It is well 
worth the earnest endeavor of the philosopher and the divine to dis¬ 
cover, if possible, the spell by which this apparently effete religion 
continues to command the attachment of the enlightened Parsees of 
India and makes them turn a deaf ear to the allurements of the Brahm- 
anic worship and the earnest appeals of Christian missionaries.” 

Zoroastrianism or Parseeism, by whatever name the system may 
be called, is a monotheistic form of religion. It believes in the exist¬ 
ence of one God, whom it knows under the names of Mazda, Ahura 
and Ahura-Mazda, the last form being the one that is most commonly 
met with in the latter writings of the Avesta. The first and the great¬ 
est truth that dawns upon the mind of a Zoroastrian is that the great 
and the infinite universe, of which he is an infinitesimally small part, 
is the work of a powerful hand—the result of a master mind. The first 
and the greatest conception of that master mind, Ahura-Mazda, is that, 
as the name implies, he is the Omniscient Lord, and as such He is the 
ruler of both the material and the immaterial world, the corporeal and 
the incorporeal world, the visible and the invisible world. The regu- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


209 


lar movements of the sun and the stars, the periodical waxing and 
waning of the moon, the regular way in which the sun and the clouds 
are sustained, the regular flow of waters and the gradual growth 
of vegetation, the rapid movements of the winds and the regular suc¬ 
cession of light and darkness, of day and night, with their accompani¬ 
ments of sleep and wakefulness, all these grand and striking phenom¬ 
ena of nature point to and bear ample evidence of the existence of an 
almighty power who is not only the creator, but the preserver of this 
great universe, who has not only launched that universe into existence 
with a premeditated plan of completeness, but who, with the con¬ 
trolling hand of a father, preserves by certain fixed laws harmony and 
order here, there and everywhere. 

As Ahura-Mazda is the ruler of the physical world, so He is the 
ruler of the spiritual world. His distinguished attributes are good 
mind, righteousness, desirable control, piety, perfection and immor¬ 
tality. He is the Beneficent Spirit from whom emanate all good and 
all piety. He looks into the hearts of men and sees how much of the 
good and of the piety that have emanated from Him has made its 
home there, and thus rewards the virtuous and punishes the vicious. 
Of course, one sees at times, in the plane of this world, moral disorders 
and want of harmony, but then the present state is only a part, and 
that a very small part, of His scheme of moral government. As the 
ruler of the world, Ahura Mazda hears the prayers of the ruled. He 
grants the prayers of those who are pious in thoughts, pious in words 
and pious in deeds. “He not only rewards the good, but punishes the 
wicked. All that is created, good or evil, fortune or misfortune, is His 
work.” 

We have seen that Ahura-Mazda, or God, is, according to Parsee 
Scriptures, the causer of all causes. He is the creator as well as the 
destroyer, the increase!* as well as the decreaser. He gives birth to 
different creatures and it is He who brings about their end. How is 
it, then, that He brings about these two contrary results? In the words 
of Dr. Haug: 

“Having arrived at the grand idea of the unity and indivisibility of 
the Supreme Being, he (Zoroaster) undertook to solve the great 
problem which has engaged the attention of so many wise men of 
antiquity and even of modern times, viz: How are the imperfections 
discoverable in the world, the various kinds of evils, wickedness and 
baseness, compatible with the goodness, holiness and justice of God? 
This great thinker of remote antiquity solved this difficult question 
philosophically by the supposition of two primeval causes, which, 
though different, were united and produced the world of material 
tnings, as well as that of the spirit.” 

These two primeval causes or principles are called in the Avesta 
the two “Mainyus.” This word comes from the ancient Aryan root 
“man,” to “think.” It may be properly rendered into English by the 
word “spirit,” meaning “that which can only be conceived by the mind 
but not felt by the senses.” Of these two spirits or primeval causes or 

u 


210 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


principles, one is creative and the other destructive. These two spirits 
work under the Almighty day and night. They create and destroy, 
and this they have done ever since the world was created. According 
to Zoroaster’s philosophy, our world is the work of these two hostile 
principles—Spenta-mainyush, the good principle, and Angro-main- 
yush, the evil principle, both serving under one God. In the words of 
that learned orientalist, Professor Darmesteter, “All that is good in 
the world comes from the former; all that is bad in it comes from the 
latter. The history of the world is the history of their conflict; how 
Angra-mainyu invaded the world of Ahura-Mazda and marred it, and 
how he shall be expelled from it at last. Man is active in the conflict, 
his duty in it being laid before him in the law revealed by Ahura Mazda 
to Zarathushtra. When the appointed time is come * * * An- 

gro-mainyu and hell will be destroyed, men will rise from the dead, and 
everlasting happiness will reign over the world.’ 

These philosophical notions have led some learned men to mis¬ 
understand Zoroastrian theology. Some authors entertain an opinion 
that Zoroaster preached dualism. But this is a serious misconcep¬ 
tion. In the Parsee scriptures the names of God are Mazda, Ahura 
and Ahura-Mazda, the last word being a compound of the first two. 
The first two words are common in the earliest writings of the Gatha 
and the third in the later scriptures. In later times the word Ahura- 
Mazda, instead of being restricted, like Mazda, the name of God began 
to be used in a wider sense, and was applied to Spenta-mainyush, the 
creative or the good principle. This being the case, wherever the 
word Ahura-Mazda was used in opposition to that of Angra-mainyush, 
later authors took it as the name of God, and not as the name of the 
creative principle, which it really was. Thus the very fact of Ahura- 
Mazda’s name being employed in opposition to that of Angra-main¬ 
yush or Ahriman led to the notion that Zoroastrian scriptures preached 
dualism. 

Not only is the charge of dualism as leveled against Zoroastrian¬ 
ism, and as ordinarily understood, groundless, but there is a close 
resemblance between the ideas of the devil among the Christians and 
those of the Ahriman among the Zoroastrians. Dr. Haug says the 
same thing in the following words: 

“The Zoroastrian idea of the devil and the infernal kingdom coin¬ 
cides entirely with the Christian doctrine. The devil is a murderer 
and father of lies, according to both the Bible and the Zend Avesta.” 

Thus we see that, according to Zoroaster’s philosophy, there are 
two primeval principles that produce our material world. Conse¬ 
quently, though the Almighty is the creator of all, a part of the 
creation is said to be created by the good principle and a part by the 
evil principle. Thus, for example, the heavenly bodies, the earth, 
water, fire, horses, dogs and such other objects are the creation of the 
good principle, and serpents, ants, locusts, etc., are the creation of the 
evil principle. In short, those things that conduce to the greatest 
good of the greatest number of mankind fall under the category of the 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


211 


creations of the good principle, and those that lead to the contrary 
result, under that ot the creations of the evil principle. This being 
the case, it is incumbent upon men to do actions that would support 
the cause of the good principle and destroy that of the evil one. 
Therefore, the cultivation of the soil, the rearing ot domestic animals, 
etc., on the one hand and the destruction of wild animals and other 
noxious creatures on the other, are considered meritorious actions by 
the Parsees. 

As there arc two primeval principles under Ahura-Mazda that 
produce our material world, so there are two principles inherent in the 
nature of man which encourage him to do good or tempt him to do 
evil. One asks him to support the cause of the good principle, the 
other to support that of the evil principle. The first is known by the 
name of Vohumana or Behemana, i. e., “good mind.” The prefix 
“vohu” or “beh” is the same word as that of which our English 
“better” is the comparative. Mana is tiie same as the word “maniyu,” 
and means mind or spirit. The second is known by the name of Aka- 
mana, i. e ., “bad mind.” The prefix “aka” means “bad” and is the 
same as our English word “ache” in “headache.” 

Now the fifth chapter of the Vendidad gives, as it were, a short 
definition of what is morality or piety. There, first of all, the writer 
says: “Purity is the best thing for man after birth.” This, you may say, is 
the motto of the Zoroastrian religion Therefore, M. Harlez very 
properly says that, according to Zoroastrian scriptures, the “notion of 
the word virtue sums itself up in that of the ‘Asha.”' This word is the 
same as the Sanskrit “rita,” which word corresponds to our English 
“right.” It means, therefore, righteousness, piety or purity. Then the 
writer proceeds to give a short definition of piety. He says that, “the 
preservation of good thoughts, good words and good deeds is piety.” 
In these pithy words is summed up, so to say, the whole of the moral 
philosophy of the Zoroastrian scriptures. It says that, if you want to lead 
a pious and moral life and thus to show a clean bill of spiritual health 
to the angel, Meher Daver, who watches the gates of heaven at the 
Chinvat bridge, practice these three: Think of nothing but the truth, 
speak nothing but the truth, and do nothing but what is proper. In 
short, what Zoroastrian moral philosophy teaches is this—that your 
good thoughts, good deeds and good words alone will be your inter¬ 
cessors. Nothing more will be wanted. They alone will serve you as 
a safe pilot to the harbor of heaven, as a safe guide to the gates of 
paradise The late Dr, Haug rightly observed that “the moral philos¬ 
ophy of Zoroaster was moving in the triad of ‘thought, word and 
deed.’ * These three words form, as it were, the pivot upon which the 
moral structure of Zoroastrianism*turns. It is the groundwork upon 
which the whole edifice of Zoroastrian morality rests. 

The following dialogue in the Pehelvi Padnameh of Buzurge-Meher 
shows in a succinct form what weight is attached to these three pithy 
words in the moral code of the Zoroastrians: 

Question. Who is the most fortunate man in the world? 



Mosque of Mohamet Ali, 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


213 


Answer. He who is the most innocent. 

Question. Who is the most innocent man in the world? 

Answer. He who walks in the path of God and shuns that of the 
devil. 

Question. Which is the path of God, and which that of the devil? 

Answer. Virtue is the path of God, and vice that of the devil. 

Question. What constitutes virtue, and what vice? 

Answer. (Humata, hukhta and hvarshta) good thoughts, good 
words and good deeds constitute virtue, and (dushmata, duzukhta and 
duzvarshta) evil thoughts, evil words and evil deeds constitute vice. 

Question. What constitute (humata, hukhta and hvarshta) good 
thoughts, good words and good deeds, and (dushmata, duzukhta and 
duzvarshta) evil thoughts, evil words and evil deeds? 

Answer. Honesty, charity and truthfulness constitute the former, 
and dishonesty, want of charity and falsehood constitute the latter. 

From this dialogue it will be seen that a man who acquires 
(humata, hukhta and hvarshta) good thoughts, good words and good 
deeds, and thereby practices honesty, charity and truthfulness, is con¬ 
sidered to walk in the path of God, and, therefore, to be the most 
innocent and fortunate man. 

Herodotus also refers to the third cardinal virtue of truthfulness 
mentioned above. He says that to speak the truth was one of the 
three things taught to a Zoroastrian of his time from his very 
childhood. 

Zoroastrianism believes in the immortality of the soul. The 
Avesta writings of Hadokht Nushk, and the nineteenth chapter of the 
Vendidad, and of the Pehelvi books of Minokherad and Viraf-nameh, 
treat of the fate of the soul after death. Its notions about heaven and 
hell correspond, to some extent, to the Christian notions about them. 
A plant called the Homad-saphid, or white Homa, a name correspond¬ 
ing to the Indian Soma of the Hindus, is held to be the emblem of the 
immortality of the soul. According to Dr. Windischmann and Prof. 
Max Muller, this plant reminds us of the “Tree of Life” in the garden 
of Eden. As in the Christian scriptures, the way to the tree of life 
is strictly guarded by the Cherubim, so in the Zoroastrian scriptures 
the Homa-i-saphid, or the plant which is the emblem of immortality, 
is guarded by innumerable Fravashis, that is, guardian spirits. The 
number of these guardian spirits, as given in various books, is 
99,999. 

Again, Zoroastrianism believes n heaven and hell. Heaven is 
called Vahishta-ahu in the Avesta books. It literally means the “best 
life.” This word is afterward contracted, with a slight change, into 
the Persian word “Behesht,” which is the superlative form of “Veh,” 
meaning “good,” and corresponds exactly with our English word 
“best.” Hell is known by the name of “Achishta-ahu.” Heaven is 
represented as a place of radiance, splendor and glory, and hell as that 
of gloom, darkness and stench. Between heaven and this world there 
is supposed to be a bridge, named “Chinvat.” This word—from the 


214 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Aryan root “chi,” meaning to pick up, to collect—means the place 
where a man’s soul has to present a collective account of the actions 
done in the past life. 

According to the Parsee scriptures, for three days after a man’s 
death his soul remains within the limits of the world under the guidance 
of the angel Srosh. If the deceased be a pious man, or a man who led 
a virtuous life, his soul utters the words “ Ushta-ahmai yahmai ushta- 
kahmai-chit,” i. e., “ Well is he by whom that which is his benefit be¬ 
comes the benefit of any one else.” If he be a wicked man, or one who 
led an evil life, his soul utters these plaintive words: “ Kam nemoi zam? 
Kuthra nemo ayeni? i. e., “ To which land shall I turn? Whither shall 
I go?” 

On the dawn of the third night the departed souls appear at the 
“Chinvat bridge.” This bridge is guarded by the angel Meher Daver, 
i. e. y Meher, the judge. He presides there as a judge, assisted by the 
angels Rashne and Astad, the former representing justice and the latter 
truth. At this bridge, and before this angel Meher, the soul of every 
man has to give an account of its doings in the past life. Meher Daver, 
the judge, weighs a man’s actions by a scale-pan. If a man’s good 
actions outweigh his evil ones, even by a small particle, he is allowed 
to pass from the bridge to the other end to heaven. If his evil actions 
outweigh his good ones, even by a small weight, he is not allowed to 
pass over the bridge, but is hurled down into the deep abyss of hell. 
If his meritorious and evil deeds counterbalance each other, he is sent 
to a place known as “ hamast-gehan,” corresponding to the Christian 
“ purgatory ” and the Mohammedan “ aeraf.” His meritorious deeds 
done in the past life would prevent him from going to hell, and his 
evil actions would not let him go to heaven. 

Again, Zoroastrian books say that the meritoriousness of good 
deeds and the sin of evil ones increase with the growth of time. As 
capital increases with interest, so good and bad actions done by a man 
in his life increase, as it were, with interest in their effects. Thus, a 
meritorious deed done in young age is more effective than that very 
deed done in advanced age. A man must begin practicing virtue from 
his very young age. As in the case of good deeds and their meritori¬ 
ousness, so in the case of evil actions and their sins The burden of 
the sin of an evil action increases, as it were, with interest. A young 
man has a long time to repent of his evil deeds and to do good deeds 
that could counteract the effect of his evil deeds. If he does not take 
advantage of these opportunities the burden of those evil deeds in¬ 
creases with time. 

The Parsee places of wo.rship are known as fire temples. The very 
name fire temple would strike a non-Zoroastrian as an unusual form of 
worship. The Parsees do not worship fire as God. They merely re¬ 
gard fire as an emblem of refulgence, glory and light as the most per¬ 
fect symbol of God, and as the best and noblest representative of His 
divinity “In the eyes of a Parsee his (fire’s) brightness, activity, 
purity and incorruptibility bear the most perfect resemblance to the 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE l VO RLE. 


215 


nature and perfection of the Deity.” A Parsee looks upon fire “ as the 
most perfect symbol of the Deity on account of its purity, brightness, 
activity, subtilty, purity and incorruptibility.” 

Again, one must remember that it is the several symbolic cere¬ 
monies that add to the reverence entertained by a Parsee for the fire 
burning in his fire temples. A new element of purity is added to the 
fire burning in the fire temples of the Parsees by the religious ceremo¬ 
nies accompanied with prayers that are performed over it, before it is 
installed in its place on a vase on an exalted stand in a chamber set 
apart The sacred fire burning there is not the ordinary fire burning in 
our hearths. It has undergone several ceremonies, and it is these cer¬ 
emonies, full of meaning, that render the fire more sacred in the eyes 
of a Parsee. We will briefly recount the process here: 

In establishing a fire temple fires from various places of manu¬ 
facture are brought and kept in different vases. Great efforts are also 
made to obtain fire caused by lightning. Over one of these fires a 
perforated metallic flat tray with a handle attached is held. On this 
tray are placed small chips and dust of fragrant sar dalwood. These 
chips and dust are ignited by the heat of the fire below, care being- 
taken that the perforated tray does not touch the fire. Thus a new 
fire is created out of the first fire. Then from this new fire another is 
again produced, and so on, until the process is repeated nine times. 
The fire thus prepared after the ninth process is considered pure. 
The fires brought from other places of manufacture are treated in a 
similar manner. These purified fires are all collected together upon a 
large vase, which is then put in its proper place in a separate cham¬ 
ber. 

Now what does a fire so prepared signify to a Parsee? He thinks 
to himself: “When this fire on this vase before me, though pure in 
itself, though the noblest of the creations of God, and though the best 
symbol of the Divinity, had to undergo certain processes of purifica¬ 
tion, had to draw out, as it were, its essence—nay, its quintessence— 
of purity to enable itself to be worthy of occupying this exalted posi¬ 
tion, how much more necessary, more essential and more important it 
is for me - a poor mortal who is liable to commit sins and crimes, and 
who comes into contact with hundreds of evils, physical and men¬ 
tal—has to undergo the process of purity and piety by making my 
thougnts, words and actions pass, as it were, through a sieve of piety 
and purity, virtue and morality, and to separate by that means my 
good thoughts, good words and good actions from bad thoughts, bad 
words and bad actions, so that I may, in my turn, be enabled to acquire 
an exalted position in the next world.” 

Again, the fires put together as above are collected from the 
houses of men of different grades in society. This reminds a Parsee 
that, as all these fires from the houses of men of different grades have 
all, by the process of purification, equally acquired the exalted place 
in the vase, so before God, all men, no matter to what grades of 
society they belong, are equal, provided they pass through the pro- 


216 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


ce-ssof purification, i. e., provided they preserve purity of thoughts^ 
purity of words and purity of deeds. 

Again, when a Parsee goes before the sacred fire, which is kept 
all day and night burning in the lire temple, the officiating priest pre¬ 
sents before him the ashes of a part of the consumed fire. The Parsee 
applies it to his forehead just as a Christian applies the consecrated 
water in his church and thinks to himself: “ Dust to dust. The fire, 
all brilliant, shining and resplendent, has spread the fragrance of the 
sweet-smelling sandal and frankincense round about, but is at last 
reduced to dust. So it is destined for me. After all I am to be re¬ 
duced to dust and have to depart from this transient life. Let me do 
my best to spread, like this fire, before my death, the fragrance of 
charity and good deeds, and lead the light of righteousness and 
knowledge before others.” 

In short, the sacred fire burning in a fire temple serves as a per¬ 
petual monitor to a Parsee standing before it to preserve piety, 
purity, humility and brotherhood. 

As we said above, evidence from nature is the surest evidence that 
leads a Parsee to the belief in the existence of the Deity From 
nature he is led to nature’s God. From this point of view, then, he is 
not restricted to any particular place for the recital of his prayers. 
For a visitor to Bombay, which is the headquarters of the Parsees, it is 
therefore not unusual to see a number of Parsees saying their prayers, 
morning and evening, in the open space, turning their faces to the ris¬ 
ing or the setting sun, before the glowing moon or the foaming sea. 
Turning to these grand objects, the best and sublimest of his creations, 
they address their prayers to the Almighty. 

All Parsee prayers begin with an assurance to do acts that would 
please the Almighty God. The assurance is followed by an expression 
of regret for past evil thoughts, words or deeds if any. Man is liable 
to err, and so, if during the interval any errors of commission or omis¬ 
sion are committed, a Parsee in the beginning of his prayers repents 
for those errors. He says: 

O, Omniscient Lord! I repent of all my sins. I repent of all evil 
thoughts that I might have entertained in my mind, of all the evil 
words that I might have spoken, of all the evil actions that I might 
have committed. O, Omniscient Lord! I repent of all the faults that 
might have originated with me, whether they refer to thoughts, words or 
deeds, whether they appertain to my body or soul, whether they be in 
connection with the material world or spiritual. 

To educate their children is a spiritual duty of Zoroastrian par- 
ents. Education is necessary, not only for the material good of the 
children and the parents, but also for their spiritual good. Accord¬ 
ing to the Parsee books, the parents participate in the meritorious¬ 
ness of the good acts performed by their children as the result of the 
good education imparted to them. On the other hand, if the parents 
neglect the education of their children, and if, as the result of this 
neglect, they do wrongful acts or evil deeds, the parents have a spirit- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE IVOR LI). 


217 


ual responsibility for such acts. In proportion to the malignity or 
evilness of these acts the parents are responsible to God for their 
neglect of the education of their children. It is, as it were, a spirit¬ 
ual self-interest that must prompt a Parsee to look to the good edu¬ 
cation of his children at an early age. Thus, from a religious point of 
view, education is a great question with the Parsees. 

The proper age recommended by religious Parsee books for or¬ 
dinary education is seven. Before that age children should have home 
education with their parents, especially with the mother. At the 
age of seven, after a little religious education, a Parsee child is invested 
with Sudreh and Kusti, i. e. } the sacred shirt and thread. This cere¬ 
mony of investiture corresponds to the confirmation ceremony of the 
Christians. A Parsee may put on the dress of any nationality he likes, 
but under that dress he must always wear the sacred shirt and thread. 
These are the symbols of his being a Zoroastrian. These symbols are 
full of meaning and act as perpetual monitors advising the wearer to 
lead a life of purity—of physical and spiritual purity. A Parsee is 
enjoined to remove, and put on again immediately, the sacred thread 
several times during the day, saying a very short prayer during the 
process. He has to do so early in the morning on rising from bed, 
before meals and after ablutions. The putting on of the symbolic 
thread and the accompanying short prayer remind him to be in a state 
of repentance for misdeeds, if any, and to preserve good thoughts, 
good words and good deeds, the triad in which the moral philosophy 
of Zoroaster moved. 

It is after this investiture with the sacred shirt and thread that the 
general education of a child generally begins. The Parsee books speak 
of the necessity of educating all children, whether male or female. 
Thus female education claims as much attention among the Parsees as 
male education. Physical education is as much spoken of in the 
Zoroastrian books as mental and moral education. The health of the 
body is considered as the first requisite for the health of the soul. 
That the physical education of the ancient Persians, the ancestors of 
the modern Parsees, was a subject of admiration among the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, is too well known. In all the blessings invoked 
upon one in the religious prayers, the strength of body occupies the 
first and the most prominent place. Analyzing the Bombay census of 
1881, Dr. Weir, the health officer, said: 

“Examining education according to faith or class, we find that 
education is most extended among the Parsee people; female educa¬ 
tion is more diffused among the Parsee population than any other class. 
* * * Contrasting these results with education at an early age 

among Parsees, we find 12.2 per cent Parsee male and 8.84 per cent 
female children under six years of age, under instruction; between six 
and fifteen the number of Parsee male and female children under in¬ 
struction is much larger than in any other class. Over fifteen years of 
age, the smallest proportion of illiterate, either male or female, is found 
in the Parsee population.” 



Mosque of Aboubakr—Moorish Sanctuary. 


































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


219 


The religious books of the Parsees say that the education of Zoro- 
astrian youths should teach them perfect discipline, obedience to their 
teachers, obedience to their parents, obedience to their elders in society, 
and obedience to the constitutional forms of government should be 
one of the practical results of their education. So a Zoroastrian child 
is asked to be affectionate toward and submissive to his teachers. A 
Parsee mother prays for a son that could take an intelligent part in 
the deliberations of the councils of his community and government; so 
a regard for the regular forms of government was necessary. 

Of all the practical questions, the one most affected by the 
religious precepts of Zoroastrianism is that of the observation of san¬ 
itary rules and principles. Several chapters of the Vendidad form, as 
it were, the sanitary code of the Parsees. Most of the injunctions will 
stand the test of sanitary science for ages together. Of the different 
Asiatic communities inhabiting Bombay, the Parsees have the lowest 
death rate. One can safely say that that is, to a great extent, due to 
the Zoroastrian ideas of sanitation, segregation, purification and clean¬ 
liness. A Parsee is enjoined not to drink from the same cup or glass 
from which another man has drunk, lest he catch by contagion the 
disease from which the other may be suffering. He is, under no cir¬ 
cumstances, to touch the body of a person a short time after death, 
lest he spread the disease, if contagious, of the deceased. If he acci¬ 
dentally or unavoidably does, he has to purify himself by a certain 
process of washing before he mixes with others in society. A passing 
fly, or even a blowing wind, is supposed to spread disease by conta¬ 
gion. So he is enjoined to perform ablutions several times during the 
day, as before saying his prayers, before meals, and after answering 
the calls of nature. If his hand comes into contact with the saliva of 
his own mouth or with that of somebody else, he has to wash it. He 
has to keep himself aloof from corpse-bearers, lest he spread any 
disease through them. If accidentally he comes into contact with 
these people, he has to bathe himself before mixing in society. A 
breach of these and various other sanitary rules is, as it were, helping 
the cause of the evil principle. 

Again, Zoroastrianism asks its disciples to keep the earth pure, to 
keep the air pure, and to keep the water pure. It considers the sun 
as the greatest purifier. In places where the rays of the sun do not 
enter, fire over which fragrant wood is burned is the next purifier. It is 
a great sin to pollute water by decomposing matter. Not only is the 
commission of a fault of this kind a sin, but also the omission, when 
one sees such a pollution, of taking proper means to remove it. A 
Zoroastrian, when he happens to see, while passing in his way, a run¬ 
ning stream of drinking water polluted by some decomposing matter, 
such as a corpse, is enjoined to wait and try his best to go into the 
stream and to remove the putrifying matter, lest its continuation may 
spoil the water and affect the health of the people using it. An 
omission to do this act is a sin from a Zoroastrian point of view. At 
the bottom of a Parsee’s custom of disposing of the dead, and at the 


220 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


bottom of all the strict religious ceremonies enjoined therewith, lies 
the one main principle, viz., that, preserving all possible respect for 
the dead, the body, after its separation from the immortal soul, should 
be disposed of in a way the least harmful and the least injurious to the 
living. The homely proverb of “cleanliness is godliness” is nowhere 
more recommended than in the Parsee religious books, which teach 
that the cleanliness of body will lead to and help the cleanliness of 
mind. 

We now come to the question of wealth, poverty and labor. As 
Herodotus said, a Parsee, before praying for himself, prays for his 
sovereign and for his community, for he is himself included in the 
community. His religious precepts teach him to drown his individu¬ 
ality in the common interests of his commun ty. He is to consider 
himself as a part and parcel of the whole community. The good of 
the whole will be the good—and that a solid good—of the parts. In 
the twelfth chapter of theYasna, which contains, as it were, Zoroastrian 
articles of faith, a Zoroastrian promises to preserve a perfect brother¬ 
hood. He promises, even at the risk of his life, to protect the life and 
the property of all the members of his community and to help in the 
cause that would bring about their prosperity and welfare. It is with 
these good feelings of brotherhood and charity that the Parsee com¬ 
munity has endowed large funds for benevolent and charitable pur¬ 
poses. If the rich Parsees of the future generations were to follow in 
the footsteps of their ancestors of the past and present generations in 
the matter of giving liberal donations for the good of the deserving 
poor of their community, one can say that there would be very little 
cause for the socialists to complain from a poor man’s point of view. 
It is these notions of charity and brotherhood that have urged them 
to start public funds for the general good of the whole community. 
Men of all grades in society contribute to these funds on various 
occasions. The rich contribute on occasions both of joy and grief. 
On grand occasions, like those of weddings in their families, they con¬ 
tribute large sums in charity to commemorate those events. Again, 
on the death of their dear ones, the rich and the poor all pay various 
sums, according to their means, in charity. These sums are announced 
on the occasion of the Oothumna, or the ceremony on the third day 
after death. The rich pay large sums on these occasions to com¬ 
memorate the names of their dear ones. In the Vendidad three kinds 
of charitable deeds are especially mentioned as meritorious—to help 
the poor; to help a man to marry, and thus to enable him to lead a 
virtuous and honorable life, and to give education to those who are in 
search of it. If one were to look co the long list ot Parsee charities, 
headed by that of that prince of Parsee charity, the first Parsee baronet, 
he will find these three kinds of charity especially attended to. The 
religious training of a Parsee does not restrict his ideas of brotherhood 
and charity to his own community alone. He extends his charity to 
non-Zoroastrians as well. 

The qualifications of a good husband, from a Zoroastrian point 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


221 


of view, are that he must be (i) young and handsome; (2) strong, 
brave and healthy; (3) diligent and industrious, so as to maintain his 
wife and children; (4) truthful, as would prove true to herself, and 
true to all others with whom he would come in contact, and is wise 
and educated. A wise, intelligent and educated husband is compared 
to a fertile piece of land which gives a plentiful crop, whatever kind 
of seeds are sown in it. The qualifications of a good wife are that she 
be wise and educated, modest and courteous, obedient and chaste. 
Obedience to her husband is the first duty of a Zoroastrian wife. It is 
a great virtue, deserving all praise and reward. Disobedience is a 
great sin, punishable after death. 

According to the Sad-dar, a wife that expressed a desire to her 
husband three times a day—in the morning, afternoon and evening—to 
be one with him in thoughts, words and deeds, i. e. y to sympathize with 
him in all his noble aspirations, pursuits and desires, performed as 
meritorious an act as that of saying her prayers three times a day. 
She must wish to be of the same view with him in all his noble pur¬ 
suits and ask him every day: “What are your thoughts, so that I may 
be one with you in those thoughts? What are your words, so that 1 
may be one with you in your speech? What are your deeds, so that 1 
may be one with you in deeds?” A Zoroastrian wife so affectionate 
and obedient to her husband was held in great respect, not only by 
the husband and the household, but in society as well. As Dr. West 
says, though a Zoroastrian wife was asked to be very obedient to her 
husband, she held a more respectable position in society than that 
enjoined by any other Oriental religion. As Sir John Malcolm says, 
the ordinance of Zoroaster secured for Zoroastrian women an equal rank 
with the male creation. The progress of the ancient Persians in civil¬ 
ization was partly due to this cause. “The great respect in which the 
female sex was held was, no doubt, the principal cause of the progress 
they had made in civilization. These were at once the cause of gener¬ 
ous enterprise and its reward.” The advance of the modern Parsis, the 
descendants of the ancient Persians, in the path of civilization is greatly 
due to this cause. As Dr. Haug says, the religious books of the Parsis 
hold women on a level with men. “ They are always mentioned as a 
necessary part of the religious community. They have the same re¬ 
ligious rites as men; the spirits of deceased women are invoked as 
well as those of men.” Parsee books attach as much importance to 
female education as to male education. 

Marriage is an institution which is greatly encouraged by the spirit 
of the Parsee religion. It is especially recommended in the Parsee 
scriptures on the ground that a married life is more likely to be happy 
than an unmarried one; that a married person is more likely to be able 
to withstand physical and mental afflictions than an unmarried person, 
and that a married man is more likely to lead a religious and virtuous 
life than an unmarried one. The following verse in the Gatha conveys 
this meaning: 

“I say (these) words to you marrying brides and to you bride- 


222 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


grooms. Impress them in your mind. May you two enjoy the life of 
good mind by following the laws of religion. Let each one of you 
clothe the other with righteousness, because then assuredly there will 
be a happy life for you.” 

An unmarried person is represented to feel as unhappy as a fertile 
piece of ground that is carelessly allowed to lie uncultivated by its 
owner (Vend, iii., 24). The fertile piece, when cultivated, not only 
adds to the beauty of the spot, but lends nourishment and food to 
many others round about. So a married couple not only add to their 
own beauty, grace and happiness, but by their righteousness and good 
conduct are in a position to spread the blessings of help and happi¬ 
ness among their neighbors. Marriage being thus considered a good 
institution, and being recommended by the religious scriptures, it is 
considered a very meritorious act for a Parsee to help his co-religion¬ 
ists to lead a married life (Vend, iv, 44). Several rich Parsees have, 
with this charitable view, founded endowment funds, from which young 
deserving brides are given small sums on the occasion of their mar¬ 
riage for the preliminary expenses of starting in married life. 

Fifteen is the minimum marriageable age spoken of by the Parsee 
books. The parents.have a voice of sanction or approval in the selec¬ 
tion of wives and husbands. Mutual friends of parents or marrying 
parties may bring about a good selection. Marriages with non- 
Zoroastrians are not recommended, as they are likely to bring about 
quarrels and dissensions owing to a difference of manners, customs 
and habits. 

We said above that the Parsee religion has made its disciples 
tolerant about the faiths and beliefs of others. It has as well made 
them sociable with the other sister communities of the country. They 
mix freely with members of other faiths and take a part in the rejoic¬ 
ings of their holidays. They also sympathize with them in their griefs 
and afflictions, and in case of sudden calamities, such as fire, floods, 
etc., they subscribe liberally to alleviate their misery. From a con¬ 
sideration of all kinds of moral and charitable notions inculcated in 
the Zoroastrian scriptures, Frances Power Cobbe, in her “Studies, New 
and Old, of Ethical and Social Subjects,” says of the founder of the 
religion: 

“Should we in a future world be permitted to hold high converse 
with the great departed, it may chance that in the Bactrian sage, who 
lived and taught almost before the dawn of history, we may find the 
spiritual patriarch, to whose lessons we have owed such a portion of 
our intellectual inheritance that we might hardly conceive what 
human belief would be now, had Zoroaster never existed.” 


IX. 

JAINISM. 



Jainism. 




N East Indian faith, most closely akin to Bud¬ 
dhism. Ihe Jains, like the Buddhists, dis¬ 
regard the authority of the Vedas. Like 
them, they give high adoration to mortal be¬ 
ings; but while the Buddhists practically 
confine their worship to seven Buddhas, the 
Jains nominally recognize seventy-two, viz., 
twenty four for the past age, twenty-four for 
the present one, and twenty-four for the 
future. These are called Tirthankars or Tirth- 
akars—persons who have crossed over (tiryata 
ancna )— i. e., the world compared to the ocean. 
They are then deified, and divine qualities are pred¬ 
icated of them in their present state. They are called 
‘ supreme lords and gods of gods. Practically speak- 
worship is confined to two of the Tirthankars, Parsa 
nath and Mahavira. The latter is said to have been the 
preceptor and friend of Buddha. This would look as if the 
Jaina faith had preceded Buddhism, but the period of its greatest 
glory was the eleventh or twelfth century of the Christian era. just 
after Buddhism had been driven from India. Fergusson thinks that it 
actually existed prior to the rise of Buddhism 1 , and that when the latter 
system fell, perishing under the weight of its immense priesthood and 
its legions of monks, an effort was made by its friends to revive the 
old faith. But modern Hinduism was shooting up so vigorously, that 
its existence could not be ignored. Jainism was obliged to derive 
various tenets and practices from it, so that it became rather a degen¬ 
erate than a reformed Buddhism .—American E?icycIopcedic Dictionary. 



15 


225 





Ethics and H' st ory °f the Jains. 


By VIRCHAND A. GANDLHI, of Bombay. 


WISH that the duty of addressing you on the 
history and tenets of the Jain faith world had 
fallen on an abler person than myself. The in¬ 
clemency of the climate and the distant voyage 
which one has to undertake before he can come 
here have prevented abler Jains than myself 
from attending this grand assembly and pre¬ 
senting their religious convictions to you in 
person. You will, therefore, look upon me as 
simply the mouthpiece of Muni Almarimji, the 
learned high priest of the Jain community in 
India, who has devoted his whole life to the 
study of that ancient faith. I am truly sorry 
that Muni Almarimji is not among us to take 
charge of the duty of addressing you. 

Without further preface I shall at once 
go to the subject of the day. It will be convenient to divide this paper 
into two parts: First, “The Philosophy and Ethics of the Jains;” sec¬ 
ond, “The History of the Jains.” 

First. Jainism has two ways of looking at things—one called 
Dravyarthekaraya and the other Paryayartheka Noya. I shall illus¬ 
trate them. The production of a law is the production of something 
not previously existing, if we think of it from the latter point of view, 
i. e ., as a Paryaya, or modification; while it is not the production of 
something not previously existing if we look at it from the former 
point of view, i. e ., as a Dravya or substance. According to the 
Dravyarthekaraya view the universe is without beginning and end, but 
according to the Paryayartheka view we have creation and destruction 
at every moment. 

The Jain canon may be divided into two parts: First, Shrute 
Dharma, i. e. y philosophy; and second, Chatra Dharma, i. e. y ethics. 

The Shrute Dharma inquiries into the nature of nine principles, 
six substances, six kinds of living beings and four states of existence 
—Jiva (sentient beings), Ajiva (non-sentient things), Punya (merit), 
Papa (demerit). Of the nine principles, the first is pua (soul). Ac- 

226 




THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


227 


cording to the Jain view, soul is that element which knows, thinks and 
feels. It is, in fact, the divine element in the living being. The Jain 
thinks that the phenomena of knowledge, feeling, thinking and will¬ 
ing, are conditioned on something, and that that something must be as 
real as anything can be. This “soul” is in a certain sense different 
from knowledge, and in another sense identical with it. So far as 
one’s knowledge is concerned the soul is identical with it, but so far as 
some one else’s knowledge is concerned it is different from it. The 
true nature of soul is right knowledge, right faith and right conduct. 
The soul, so long as it is subject to transmigration, is undergoing evo¬ 
lution and involution. 

The second principle is non-soul. It is not simply what we under¬ 
stand by matter, but it is more than that. Matter is a term contrary 
to soul. But non-soul is its contradictory. Whatever is not soul is 
non-soul. 

The rest of the nine principles are but the different states pro¬ 
duced by the combination and separation of soul and non-soul. The 
third principle is Punya (merit), that, on account of which a being 
is happy, is Punya. The fourth principle is Papa (demerit), that on 
account of which a being suffers from misery. The fifth is Ashrana, 
the state which brings in merit and demerit. The seventh is Nirjara, 
destruction of actions. The eighth is Bardha, bondage of soul with 
Karwa, actions. The ninth is Moksha, total and permanent freedom 
of soul from all Karwas (actions). 

Substance is divided into the sentient, or conscious, matter, stabil¬ 
ity, space and time. Six kinds of living beings are divided into six 
classes, earth body beings, water body beings, fire body beings, wind 
body beings, vegetables, and all of them having one organ of sense, 
that of touch. These are again divided into four classes of beings 
having two organs of sense, those of touch and of taste, such as 
tapeworms, leeches, etc.; beings having three organs of sense, 
those of touch, taste and smell, such as ants, lice, etc.; beings 
having four organs of sense, those of touch, taste, smell and 
sight, such as bees, scorpions, etc.; beings having five organs of 
sense, those of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. There are 
human beings, animals, birds, men and gods. All these living 
beings have four, five or six of the following capacities: Capacity 
of taking food, capacity of constructing body, capacity of constructing 
organs, capacity of respiration, capacity of speaking and the capacity 
of thinking. Beings having one organ of sense, that is, of touch, have 
the first four capacities. Beings having two, three and four organs of 
sense, have the first five capacities, while those having five organs have 
all the six capacities. 

The Jain canonical book treats very elaborately of the minute 
divisions of the living beings, and their prophets have long before the 
discovery of the microscope been able to tell how many organs of 
sense the minutest animalcule has. I would refer those who are desir¬ 
ous of studying Jain biology, zoology, botany, anatomy and physiology 
to the many books published by our society. 


228 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


I shall now refer to the four states of existence. They are naraka, 
tiryarch, manushyra and deva. Naraka is the lowest state of exist¬ 
ence, that of being a denizen of he'll; tiryarch is the next, that of hav¬ 
ing an earth body, water body, fire body, wind body, vegetable, of hav¬ 
ing two, three or four organs, animal and birds. The third is manu¬ 
shyra, of being a man, and the fourth is deva, that of being a denizen 
of the celestial world. The highest state of existence is the Jain 
Moksha, the apotheosis in the sense that the mortal being by the 
destruction of all Karman attains the highest spiritualism, and the soul 
being severed from all connection with matter regains its purest state 
and becomes divine. 

Having briefly stated the principal articles of Jain belief, I come 
to the grand questions the answers to which are the objects of all 
religious inquiry and the substance of all creeds. 

First. What is the origin of the universe? 

This involves the questioq of God. Gautama, the Buddha, forbids 
inquiry into the beginning of things. In the Brahmanical literature 
bearing on the constitution of cosmos frequent reference is made to 
the days and nights of Brahma, the periods of Manuantara and the 
periods of Peroloya. But the Jains, leaving all symbolical expression 
aside, distinctly reaffirm the view previously promulgated by the previ¬ 
ous hierophants, that matter and soul are eternal and cannot be 
created. You can affirm existence of a thing from one point of view, 
deny it from another, and affirm both existence and non-existence 
with reference to it at different times. If you should think of affirm¬ 
ing both existence and non-existence at the same time from the same 
point of view, you must say that the thing cannot be spoken of simi¬ 
larly. Under certain circumstances the affirmation of existence is not 
possible ; of non-existence and also of both. 

What is meant by these seven modes is that a thing should not be 
considered as existing everywhere at all times in all ways and in the 
form of everything. It may exist in one place and not in another at 
one time. It is not meant by these modes that there is no certainty, 
or that we have to deal with probabilities only as some scholars have 
taught. Even the great Vedantist Sankaracharya has possibly erred 
when he says that the Jains are agnostics. All that is implied is that 
every assertion which is true is true only under certain conditions of 
substance, space, time, etc. 

This is the great merit of the Jain philosophy, that while other 
philosophies make absolute assertions, the Jain looks at things from 
all standpoints and adapts itself like a mighty ocean in which the 
sectarian rivers merge themselves. What is God, then? God, in the 
sense of an extra cosmic personal creator, has no place in the Jain 
philosophy. It distinctly denies such creator as illogical and irrelevant 
in the general scheme of the universe. But it lays down that there is 
a subtle essence underlying all substances, conscious as well as uncon¬ 
scious, which becomes an eternal cause of all modifications and is 
termed God. But then the advocate of theism, holding that even 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


229 


primordial matter had its first cause—the God—argues that “every¬ 
thing that we know had a cause. How, then, can it be but that the 
elements had a cause to which they are indebted for their existence?” 
That great philosopher, John Stuart Mill, replies: 

“The fact of experience, however, when correctly expressed,turns 
out to be, not that everything which we know derives its existence 
from the cause, but only every event or change. There is in nature a 
permanent element and also a changeable; the changes are always the 
effects of previous changes; the permanent existences, so far as we 
know, are not effects at all. It is true we are accustomed to say, not 
only of events, but of objects, that they are produced by causes, as water 
by the union of hydrogen and oxygen. But by this we only mean 
that when they begin to exist their beginning is the effect of a cause. 
But their beginning to exist is not an object, it is an event. If it be 
objected that the cause of a thing’s beginning to exist may be said with 
propriety to be the cause of the thing itself I shall not quarrel with 
the expression. But that which in an object begins to exist is that in 
it which belongs to the changeable element in nature, the outward 
form and the properties depending upon mechanical or chemical com¬ 
binations of its component parts. There is in every object another 
and a permanent element, viz., the specific elementary substance or 
substances of which it consists and their inherent properties. These 
are not known to us as beginning to exist; within the range of human 
knowledge they have no beginning, consequently no cause; though 
they themselves are causes or con-causes of everything that takes 
place. Experience, therefore, affords no evidences, not even analo¬ 
gies, to justify our extending to the apparently immutable a general¬ 
ization grounded only on our observation of thechangeable. 

As a fact of experience, then, causation cannot legitimately be ex¬ 
tended to the material universe itself, but only to its changeable phe¬ 
nomena; of these, indeed, causes may be affirmed without any excep¬ 
tion. But what causes? The cause of every change is a prior change, 
and such it cannot but be, for if there were no new antecedent there 
would not be a new consequent. If the state of facts v/hich brings 
the phenomenon into existence had existed always, or for any indef¬ 
inite duration, the effect also would have existed always or been pro¬ 
duced in indefinite time ago. It is thus a necessary part of the fact of 
causation, within the sphere of our experience, that the causes, as well 
as the effects, had a beginning in time and were themselves caused. 
It would seem, therefore, that our experience, instead of furnishing an 
argument for the first cause, is repugnant to it, and that the very es¬ 
sential of causation as it exists within the limits of our knowledge is 
incompatible with a first cause.” 

The doctrine of the transmigration of soul or the reincarnation, is 
another grand idea of the Jain philosophy. Once the whole civilized 
world embraced this doctrine. Many philosophers have upheld it. Scien¬ 
tists like Flammarion, Figuier and Brewster have advocated it. The¬ 
ologians like Muller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it. 


230 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The Bible and sacred literature of the East are full of it, and it is today 
accepted by the majority of the world’s inhabitants. 

People are talking of design in nature. But what does the idea of 
design lead to? Design means contrivance, adaptation of means to an 
end. But the necessity of contrivance, the need of employing means, 
is a consequence of the limitation of power. Who would have recourse 
to means if to attain this end his mere word was sufficient? 

But how shall we reconcile God’s infinite benevolence and justice 
with His infinite power, when we look around and see that some of His 
creatures are born happy and others miserable? Why is He so partial? 
Where is the moral responsibility of a person having no incentive to 
lead a virtuous life? The problem of injustice and misery which broods 
over our world can only be explained by the doctrine of reincarnation 
and Karma, to which I am presently coming. 

That the soul is immortal is doubted by very few. It is an old 
declaration that whatever begins in time must end in time. You can¬ 
not say that soul is eternal on one side of its earthly period without 
being so in the other. If the soul sprang into existence specially for this 
life, why should it continue afterward? The ordinary idea of cre¬ 
ation at birth involves the correlative of annihilation at death. More¬ 
over, it does not stand to reason that from an infinite history the soul 
enters this world for its first and all physical existence, and then merges 
into an endless spiritual eternity. The more reasonable deduction is 
that it has passed through many lives and will have to pass through 
many more before it reaches its ultimate goal. But it is objected that 
we have no memory of past lives. Can anyone recall his childhood? 
Has anyone a memory of that wonderful epoch—infancy? 

The companion doctrine of transmigration is the doctrine of Karma. 
The Sanskrit of the word Karma means action. “With what measure 
ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,’’ and “Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap” are but the corralaries of that most 
intricate law of Karma. It solves the problem of the inequality and 
apparent injustice of the world. 

The Karman in the Jain philosophy is divided into eight classes: 
Those which act as an impediment to the knowledge of truth; those 
which act as an impediment to the right insight of various sorts; those 
which give one pleasure or pain, and those which produce bewilder¬ 
ment. The other four are again divided into other classes, so minutely, 
that a student of Jain Karman philosophy can trace any effect to a 
particular Karma. No other Indian philosophy reads so beautifully 
and so clearly the doctrine of Karma. Persons who by right faith, 
right knowledge and right conduct destroy all Karma and thus fully 
develop the nature of their soul, reach the highest perfection, 
become divine and are called Jinas. Those Jinas who, in every age, 
preach the law and establish the order, are called Tirtharkaras. 

I now come to the Jain ethics. Different philosophers have given 
different bases for the guidance of conduct. The Jain ethics direct con¬ 
duct to be so adapted as to insure the fullest development of the soul— 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


231 


the highest happiness, that is, the g:>al of human conduct, which is 
the ultimate end of human action. Jainism teaches to look upon all 
living beings as upon oneself. What then is the mode of attaining 
the highest happiness? The sacred books of the Brahmans prescribe 
Upasona (devotion) and Karma. The Vedanta indicates the path of 
knowledge- as the means to the highest. But Jainism goes a step 
farther and says that the highest happiness is to be obtained by knowl¬ 
edge and religious observances. The five Maharatas or rules for Jain 
ascetics are: 

Not to kill, i. e ., to protect all life. Not to lie. Not to take that 
which is not given. To abstain from sexual intercourse. To renounce 
all interest in wordly things, especially to call nothing one’s own. 






Gate of Damascus, Jerusalem 








X. 

BRAHMA SOMAJ. 



Brahma Somaj. 



HINDU theistic sect, existing chiefly in Ben¬ 
gal. It was founded by a Brahman of high 
descent, Rammohun Roy. Born about 1774, 
at the age of sixteen he began to attack the 
idolatry of modern Hinduism, and continued 
to do so throughout his life, on the ground 
that it was not countenanced by the Vedas. 
He opposed the burning of widows. In 1820 
he sent forth in English, Sanskrit, and Ben¬ 
galee, a series of extracts from the New 
Testament, entitled: The Precepts of Jesus , the 
Guide to Peace and Happiness. He believed in 
the divine mission of Christ, but held at the same 
time the Vedas to be a revelation from God. In 1828 
he established the Brahma Somaj, which called into exist¬ 
ence as an antagonist to it the Dharma Sabha, to defend 
Hindu orthodoxy. Sent in 1830 by the Emperor of Delhi 
to London with the title of Rajah, to prefer a complaint 
about a financial matter, he fraternized with the English Unitarians, 
and dying on September 27, 1833, near Bristol, was interred, according 
to instructions which he had left, without Christian rites, lest the 
report that he had been converted and lost caste might, by a law then 
existing in Bengal, deprive his children of their inheritance. Rammo¬ 
hun predicted that after his death Christians, Hindus, and Mohamme¬ 
dans would all claim him. They did, but in his final stage of religious 
evolution he seems to have held only the doctrines of philosophic 
theism or natural religion. ( Calcutta Review , iv., 355-393.) The Brahma 
Somaj, when deprived of its founder, languished for a time, but in 
1841 it received a fresh impulse from Babu Debendra Nath Tagore, 
and again made way, drawing to it many of the youths educated in 
the Hindu College and the Missionary Institutions. As numbers 
increased, it became evident that there were in the Somaj a conserva¬ 
tive and a progressive party, and about 1863 the latter broke off from 
the association on the question of the divine authority of the Vedas, 
and, under the leadership of Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, founded 
what they considered churches rather than societies throughout Ben¬ 
gal, the northwestern provinces, the Punjaub, Bombay, and Madras. 
In 1870 Keshub visited England, finding his nearest allies in the Uni¬ 
tarians. Both sections have singing, prayer and addresses or sermons 
in their assemblies. The seceding brethren consider themselves to be 
founding the Indian Church of the future, adopting the essence of the 
gospel without the distinctive doctrines of Christianity.— Ameri¬ 
can Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

4 , 235 




The Spiritual Ideas of the 3 ra hmo-Somaj. 


By B. NAGARKAR, of Bombay. 



HE last few days various faiths have been press¬ 
ing their claims upon your attention. And it 
must be a great puzzle and perplexity for you 
to accept any of these or all of these. But 
during all these discussions and debates I 
would earnestly ask you all to keep in mind 
one prominent fact—that the essence of all 
these faiths is one and the same. The truth 
that lies at the root of them all is unchanged 
and unchanging. But it requires an impartial 
and dispassionate consideration to understand 
and appreciate this truth. One of the poets 
of our country has said: 

“When Scriptures differ, and faiths dis¬ 
agree, a man should see truth reflected in his 
own spirit.” 

This truth cannot be observed unless we are prepared to forget 
the accident of our nationality. We are all too apt to be carried away 
for or against a system of religion by our false patriotism, insular 
nationality and scholarly egotism. This state of the heart is detri¬ 
mental to spiritual culture and spiritual development. Self-annihila¬ 
tion and self-effacement are the only means of realizing the verities of 
the spiritual world. The mind of man is like a lake; and just as the 
clear and crystal image of the evening moon cannot be faithfully 
reflected on the surface of the lake so long as the waters are disturbed 
by storms and waves, so in the same way spiritual truths cannot be 
imaged in the heart of man so long as his mind is disturbed by the 
storms of false pride and partial prejudice. 

I stand before you as an humble member of the Brahmo-Somaj, 
and if the followers of other religions will commend to your attention 
their own respective creeds, my humble attempt will be to place before 
you the liberal and cosmopolitan principles of my beloved church. 

The fundamental, spiritual ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is belief in 
the existence of one true God. Now, the expression, belief in the 
existence of God, is nothing new to you. In a way you all believe in 

236 




THE RELIGIOAS OF THE WORLD. 


237 


God, but to us of the Brahmo-Somaj that belief is a stern reality; it is 
not a logical idea; it is nothing arrived at after an intellectual process. 
It must be our aim to feel God, to realize God in our daily spiritual 
communion with Him. We must be able, as it were, to feel His touch; 
to feel as if we were shaking hands with Him. This deep, vivid, 
real and lasting perception of the Supreme Being is the first and fore¬ 
most ideal of the theistic faith. 

You, in the western countries, are too apt to forget this ideal. 
The ceaseless demand on your time and energy, the constant worry 
and hurry of your business activity and the artificial conditions of your 
western civilization are all calculated to make you forgetful of the per¬ 
sonal presence of God. You are too apt to be satisfied with a mere 
belief; perhaps at the best, a notional belief in God. The eastern does 
not live on such a belief, and such a belief can never form the life of a 
lifegiving faith. It is said that the way to an Englishman’s heart is 
through his stomach; that is, if you wish to reach his heart you must 
do so through the medium of that wonderful organ called the stom¬ 
ach. The stomach, therefore, is the life of an Englishman, and all his 
life rests in his stomach. 

Wherein does the heart of a Hindu lie? It lies in his sight. He 
is not satisfied unless and until he has seen God. The highest dream 
of his spiritual life is God-vision—the seeing and feeling in every 
place and at every time the presence of a Supreme Being. He does 
not live by bread, but by sight. 

The second spiritual ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is the unity 
of truth. We believe that truth is born in time but not in a place. 
No nation, no people, or no community has any exclusive monopoly 
of God’s truth. It is a misnomer to speak of truth as Christian truth, 
Hindu truth, or Mohammedan truth. 

Truth is the body of God. In His own providence He sends it 
through tne instrumentality of a nation or a people, but that is no 
reason why that nation or that people should pride themselves for 
having been the medium of that truth. Thus, we must always be ready 
to receive the Gospel truth from whatever country and from whatever 
people it may come to us. We all believe in the principle of free trade 
or unrestricted exchange of goods. And we eagerly hope and long 
for the golden day when people of every nation and of every 
clime will proclaim the principle of free trade in spiritual matters as 
ardently and as zealously as they are doing in secular affairs or in 
industrial matters. 

It appears to me that it is the duty of us all to put together the 
grand and glorious truths believed in and taught by different nations 
of the world. This synthesis of truth is a necessary result of the 
recognition of the principle of the unity of truth. Owing to this 
character of the Brahmo-Somaj the church of Indian theism has often 
been called an eclectic church; yes, the religion of the Brahmo-Somaj 
is the religion of eclecticism—of putting together the spiritual truths 
of the entire humanity and of earnestly striving after assimilating them 


238 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


with our spiritual being. The religion of the Brahmo-Somaj is inclusive 
and not exclusive. 

The third spiritual ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is the harmony of 
prophets. We believe that the prophets of the world—spiritual 
teachers such as Vyas and Buddha, Moses and Mohammed, Jesus and 
Zoroaster, all form a homogeneous whole. Each has to teach man¬ 
kind his own message. Every prophet was sent from above with a 
distinct message, and it is the duty of us who live in these advanced 
times to put these messages together and thereby harmonize and unify 
the distinctive teachings of the prophets of the world. It would not 
do to accept the one and reject all the others, or to accept some and 
reject even a single one. The general truths taught by these different 
prophets are nearly the same in their essence; but, in the midst of all 
these universal truths that they taught, each has a distinctive truth to 
teach, and it should be our earnest purpose to find out and understand 
this particular truth. To me Vyas teaches how to understand and 
apprehend the attributes of Divinity. The Jewish prophets of the Old 
Testament teach the idea of the sovereignty of God; they speak of 
God as a king, a monarch, a sovereign who rules over the affairs of 
mankind as nearly and as closely as an ordinary human king. Moham¬ 
med, on the other hand, most emphatically teaches the idea of 
the Unity of God. He rebelled against the trinitarian doctrine 
imported into the religion of Christ through Greek and Roman 
influences. The monotheism of Mohammed is hard and unyielding, 
aggressive and almost savage. I have no sympathy with the errors or 
erroneous teachings of Mohammedanism, or of any religion for that 
matter. In spite of all such errors Mohammed’s ideal of the Unity of 
God stands supreme and unchallenged in his teachings. 

Buddha, the great teacher of morals and ethics, teaches in 
most sublime strains the doctrine of Nirvana, or self-denial and self- 
effacement. This principle of extreme self-abnegation means nothing 
more than the subjugation and conquest of our carnal self. For you 
know that man is a composite being. In him he has the angelic and 
the animal; and the spiritual training of our life means no more than 
subjugation of the animal and the setting free of the angelic. 

So, also, Christ Jesus of Nazareth taught a sublime truth when 
he inculcated the noble idea of the Fatherhood of God. He taught 
many other truths, but the Fatherhood of God stands supreme above 
them all. The brotherhood of man is a mere corollary, or a conclu¬ 
sion, deduced from the idea of the Fatherhood of God. Jesus taught 
this truth in the most emphatic language, and, therefore, that is the 
special message that He has brought to fallen humanity. In this way, 
by means of an honest and earnest study of the lives and teachings of 
different prophets of the world, we can find out the central truth of 
each faith. Having done this, it should be our highest aim to harmon¬ 
ize all these and to build up our spiritual nature on them. 

The religious history of the present century has most clearly 
shown the need and necessity of the recognition of some universal 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


239 


truths in religion. For the last several years there has been a cease¬ 
less yearning, a deep longing after such a universal religion. The 
present parliament of religions, which we have been for the last few 
days celebrating with so much edification and ennoblement, is the 
clearest indication of this universal longing, and whatever the prophets 
of despondency, or the champions of orthodoxy, may say or feel, every 
individual who has the least spark of spirituality alive in him must feel 
that this spiritual fellowship that we have enjoyed for the last several 
days, within the precincts of this noble hall, cannot but be productive 
of much that leads toward the establishment of universal peace and 
good will among men and nations of the world. 

To us of the Brahmo-Somaj this happy consummation, however par¬ 
tial and imperfect it may be for the time being, is nothing short of 
a sure foretaste of the realization of the principle of the harmony of 
prophets. In politics and in national government it is now an estab¬ 
lished fact that in future countries and continents on the surface of the 
earth will be governed, not by mighty monarchies or aristocratic autoc¬ 
racies, but by the system of universal federation. The history of po¬ 
litical progress in your own country stands in noble evidence of my 
statement; and I am one of those who strongly believe that at some 
future time every country will be governed by itself as an independent 
unit, though in some respects may be dependent on some brother 
power or sister kingdom. What is true in politics will also be true in 
religion; and nations will recognize and realize the truths taught by 
the universal family of the sainted prophets of the world. 

In the fourth place, we believe that the religion of the Brahmo- 
Somaj is a dispensation of this age; it is a message of unity and har¬ 
mony; of universal amity and unification, proclaimed from above. We 
do not believe in the revelation of books and men, of histories and his¬ 
torical records. We believe in the infallible revelation of the Spirit—- 
in the message that comes to man, by the touch of human spirit with 
the supreme spirit. And can we even for a moment ever imagine that 
the spirit of God has ceased to work in our midst? No, we cannot. 
Even today God communicates His will to mankind as truly and as 
really as he did in the days of Christ or Moses, Mohammed or 
Buddha. 

The dispensations of the world are not isolated units of truth; but 
viewed at as a whole, and followed out from the earliest to the latest 
in their historical sequence, they form a continuous chain, and each 
dispensation is only a link in this chain. It is our bounden duty to 
read the message of each dispensation in the light that comes from 
above, and not according to the dead letter that might have been re¬ 
corded in the past. The interpretation of letters and words, of books 
and chapters, is a drag behind on the workings of the spirit. Truly 
hath it been said that "the letter killeth. Therefore, brethren, let us 
seek the guidance of the Spirit and interpret the message of the Su¬ 
preme Spirit by .the help of His Holy Spirit. 

Thus the Brahmo-Somaj seeks to Hinduize Hinduism, Moham- 



4 


Caravan to the Pyramids. 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


241 


danize Mohammedism, and Christianize Christianity. And whatever 
the champions of old Christian orthodoxy may say to the contrary, 
mere doctrine, mere dogma can never give life to any country or 
community. We are ready and most willing to receive the truths of 
the religion of Christ as truly as the truths of the religions of other 
prophets, but we shall receive these from the life and teachings of 
Christ Himself, and not through the medium of any church or the so- 
called missionary of Christ. If Christian missionaries have in them 
the meekness and humility, and the earnestness of purpose that Christ 
lived in His own life, and so pathetically exemplified in His glorious 
death on the cross, let our missionary friends show it in their lives. 

The first ideal of the Brahmo-Somaj is the ideal of the Motherhood 
of God. I do not possess the powers, nor have I the time to dwell at 
length on this most sublime ideal of the church of Indian theism. 
The world has heard of God as the Almighty Creator of the universe, 
as the Omnipotent Sovereign that rules the entire creation, as the Pro¬ 
tector, the Saviour and the Judge of the human race; as the Supreme 
Being, vivifying and enlivening the whole of the sentient and insen¬ 
tient nature. 

We humbly believe that the world has yet to understand and real¬ 
ize, as it never has in the past, the tender and loving relationship that 
exists between mankind and their Supreme, Universal, Divine Mother. 
Oh, what a world of thought and feeling is centered in that one mono¬ 
syllabic word ma, which in my language is indicative of the English 
word mother. Words cannot describe, hearts cannot conceive of the 
tender and self sacrificing love of a human mother. Of all human re¬ 
lations the relation of mother to her children is the most sacred and 
elevating relation. And yet our frail and fickle human mother is noth¬ 
ing in comparison with the Divine Mother of the entire humanity, who 
is the primal source of all love, of all mercy and all purity. 

Let us, therefore, realize that God is our Mother, the Mother of 
mankind, irrespective of the country or the clime in which men and 
women may be born. The deeper the realization of the Motherhood 
of God the greater will be the strength and intensity of our ideas of 
the brotherhood of man and the sisterhood of woman. Once we see 
and feel that God is our Mother all the intricate problems of theology, 
all the puzzling quibbles of church government, all the quarrels and 
wranglings of the so-called religious world will be solved and settled. 
We, of the Brahmo-Somaj family, hold that a vivid realization of the 
Motherhood of God is the only solution of the intricate problems and 

differences in the religious world. 

May the Universal Mother grant us all Her blessings to understand 
and appreciate Her sweet relationship to the vast family of mankind. 
Let us approach Her footstool in the spirit of Her humble and obedient 
children. 


16 


"Phe Principles of the 3rahmo-§omaj. 

By PROTAP CHUNDER MOZOOMDAR, of Calcutta, India. 


R. PRESIDENT, Representatives of 
Nations and Religions: I told you 
the other day that India is the mother 
of religion, the land of evolution. 
I am going this morning to give you an 
example, or demonstrate the truth of 
what I said. The Brahmo-Somaj, of 
India, which I have the honor to repre¬ 
sent, is that example. Our society is a 
new society; our religion is a new re¬ 
ligion; but it comes from far, far antiq¬ 
uity, from the very roots of our nation¬ 
al life, hundreds of centuries ago. 

Sixty-three years ago the whole 
land of India—the whole country of 
Bengal—was full of a mighty clamor. The 
great jarring noise of a heterogeneous polytheism 
rent the stillness of the sky. The cry of widows; 
nay, far more lamentable, the cry of those 
miserable women who had to be burned on the funeral pyre of their 
dead husbands, desecrated the holiness of God’s earth. 

We had the Buddhist, goddess of the country, the mother of the 
people, ten handed, holding in each hand the weapons for the defense 
of her children. We had the white goddess of learning, playing on 
her Vena, a stringed instrument of music, the strings of wisdom, be¬ 
cause, my friends, all wisdom is musical; where there is a discord there 
is no deep wisdom. [Applause.] The goddess of good fortune, hold¬ 
ing in her arms, not the horn, but the basket of plenty, blessing the 
nations of India, was there, and the god with the head of an elephant, 
and the god who rides on a peacock—martial men are always fashion¬ 
able, you know, and the 33,000,000 of gods and goddesses besides. I 
have my theory about the mythology of Hinduism, but this is not 
the time to take it up. 

Amid the din and clash of this polytheism and so-called evil, 
amid all the darkness of the times, there arose a man, a Brahman, pure 
bred and pure born, whose name was Raja Ram Dohan Roy. In his 

242 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


243 


boyhood he had studied the Arabic and Persian; he had studied San¬ 
skrit, and his own mother was a Bengalee. Before he was out of his 
teens he made a journey to Thibet and learned the wisdom of the 
Lamas. 

Before he became a man he wrote a book proving the falsehood 
of all polytheism and the truth of the existence of the living God. 
This brought upon his head persecution, nay, even such serious dis¬ 
pleasure of his own parents that he had to leave his home for awhile 
and live the life of a wanderer. In 1830 this man founded a society 
known as the Brahmo-Somaj; Brahma, as you know, means God. 
Brahmo means the worshiper of God, and Somaj means society; there¬ 
fore Brahmo-Somaj means the society of the worshipers of the one 
living God. While, on the one hand he established the Brahmo-Somaj, 
on the other hand he co-operated with the British government to 
abolish the barbarous custom of suttee, or the burning of widows with 
their dead husbands. In 1832 he traveled to England, the very first 
Hindu who ever went to Europe, and in 1833 he died, and his sacred 
bones are interred in Brisco, the place where every Hindu pilgrim 
goes to pay his tribute of honor and reverence. 

This monotheism, the one true living God—this society in the 
name of this great God—what were the underlying principles upon 
which it was established? The principles were those of the old Hin¬ 
du Scriptures. The Brahmo-Somaj founded this monotheism upon 
the inspiration of the Vedas and the Upanishads. When Rajar Ram 
Dohan Roy died his followers for awhile found it nearly impossible to 
maintain the infant association. But the spirit of God was there. The 
movement sprang up in the fullness of time. The seeds of eternal 
truth were sown in it; how could it die? Hence in the course of time 
other men sprang up to preserve it and contribute toward its growth. 
Did I say the spirit of God was there? Did I say the seed of eternal 
truth was there? There! Where? 

All societies, all churches, all religious movement have their 
foundation, not without, but within the depths of the human soul. 
[Applause.] Where the basis of a church is outside the floods shall 
rise, the rain shall beat, and the storm shall blow, and like a heap of 
sand it will melt into the sea. Where the basis is within the heart, 
within the soul, the storm shall rise, and the rain shall beat, and the 
flood shall come, but like a rock it neither wavers nor falls. So that 
movement of the Brahmo-Somaj shall never fall. [Applause.] Think 
for yourselves, my brothers and sisters, upon what foundation your 
house is laid. 

In the course of time, as the movement grew the members began 
to doubt whether the Hindu Scriptures were really infallible. In 
their souls, in the depth of their intelligence, they thought they heard 
a voice which here and there, at first in feeble accents, contradicted 
the deliverances of the Vedas and the Upanishads. What shall be our 
theological principles? Upon what principles shall our religion stand? 
The small accents in which the question first was asked became louder 


244 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


and louder and were more and more echoed in the rising religious 
society until it became the most practical of all problems—upon what 
book shall true religion stand? 

Briefly, they found that it was impossible that the Hindu Script¬ 
ures should be the only records of true religion. They found that the 
spirit was the great source of confirmation, the voice of God was the 
great judge, the soul of the indweller was the revealer of truth, and, 
although there were truths in the Hindu Scriptures, they could not 
recognize them as the only infallible standard of spiritual reality. So 
twenty-one years after the foundation of the Brahmo-Somaj the doc¬ 
trine of the infallibility of the Hindu Scriptures was given up. 

Then a further question came. The Hindu Scriptures only not 
infallible! Are there not other Scriptures also? Did I not tell you the 
other day that on the imperial throne of India Christianity now sat 
with the Gospel of Peace in one hand and the scepter of civilization 
in the other? [Applause.] The Bible had penetrated into India; its 
pages were unfolded, its truths were read and taught. The Bible is 
the book which mankind shall not ignore. [Applause.] Recognizing, 
therefore, on the one hand, the great inspiration of the Hindu Script¬ 
ures, we could not but on the other hand recognize the inspiration 
and the authority of the Bible. [Applause.] And in 1861 we pub¬ 
lished a book in which extracts from all scriptures were given as the 
book which was to be read in the course of our devotions. 

Our monotheism, therefore, stands upon all Scriptures. That is 
our theological principle, and that principle did not emanate from the 
depths of our own consciousness, as the donkey was delivered out of 
the depths of the German consciousness; it came out as the natural 
result of the indwelling of God spirit within our fellow believers. No, 
it was not the Christian missionary that drew our attention to the 
Bible; it was not the Mohammedan priests who showed us the excel¬ 
lent passages in the Koran; it was no Zoroastnan who preached to us 
the greatness of his Zend-Avesta; but there was in our hearts the God 
of infinite reality, the source of inspiration of all the books, of the 
Bible, of the Koran, of the Zend-Avesta, who drew our attention to 
H is excellencies as revealed in the record of holy experience every¬ 
where. By His leading and by His light it was that we recognized 
these facts, and upon the rock of everlasting and eternal reality our 
theological basis was laid. 

What is theology without morality? What is the inspiration of 
this book or the authority of that prophet without personal holiness— 
the cleanliness of this God-made temple and the cleanliness of the 
deeper temple within? Soon after we had got through our theology 
the question stared us-in the face that w r e were not good men, pure 
minded, holy men, and that there were innumerable evils around us, in 
our houses, in our national usages, in the organization of our society. 
The Brahmo-Somaj, therefore, next laid its hand upon the reformation 
of society. In 1851 the first intermarriage was celebrated. Intermar¬ 
riage in India means the marriage of persons belonging to different 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


245 


castes. Caste is a sort of Chinese wall that surrounds every household 
and every little community, and beyond the limits of which no auda- 
cious man or woman shall stray. In the Brahmo-Somaj we asked, 
Shall this Chinese wall disgrace the freedom of God’s children for¬ 
ever?” Break it down; down with it, and away. 

Next, my honored leader and friend, Keshub Chunder Sen, so ar¬ 
ranged that marriage between different castes should take place. The 
Brahmans were offended. Wiseacres shook their heads; even leaders 
of the Brahmo-Somaj shrugged up their shoulders and put their hands 
into their pockets. “These young firebrands,” they said, “are going to 
set fire to the whole of society.” But intermarriage took place, and 
widow marriage took place. 

Do you know what the widows of India are? A little girl of ten 
or twelve years happens to lose her husband before she knows his 
features very well, and from that tender age to her dying day she shall 
go through penances and austerities and miseries and loneliness and 
disgrace which you tremble to hear of. I do not approve of or under¬ 
stand the conduct of a woman who marries a first time and then a 
second time and then a third time and a fourth time—who marries as 
many times as there are seasons in the year. [Laughter and ap¬ 
plause.] I do not understand the conduct of such men and women. 
But I do think that when a little child of eleven loses what men call 
her husband, and who has never been a wife for a single day of her 
life, to put her to the wretchedness of a lifelong widowhood, and in¬ 
flict upon her miseries which would disgrace a criminal, is a piece of 
inhumanity which cannot too soon be done away with. [Applause.] 
Hence intermarriages and widow marriages. Our hands were thus 
laid upon the problem of social and domestic improvement, and the 
result of that was that very soon a rupture took place in the Brahmo- 
Somaj. We young men had to go—we, with all our social reform— 
and shift for ourselves as we best might. When these social reforms 
were partially completed there came another question. 

We had married the widow; we had prevented the burning of 
widows; what about her personal purity, the sanctification of our own 
consciences, the regeneration of our own souls? What about our 
acceptance before the awful tribunal of the God of infinite justice? 
Social reform and the doing of public good is itself only legitimate 
when it develops into the all-embracing principle of personal purity 
and the holiness of the soul. 

My friends, I am often afraid, I confess, when I contemplate the 
condition of European and American society, when your activities are 
so manifold, your work is so extensive that you are drowned in it and 
you have little time to consider the great questions of regeneration, of 
personal sanctification, of trial and judgment and of acceptance before 
God. That is the question of all questions. [Applause.] A right 
theological basis may lead to social reform, but a right line of public 
activity and the doing of good is bound to lead to the salvation of the 
doer’s soul and the regeneration of public men. 


246 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


After the end of the work of our social reform we were therefore 
led into this great subject, How shall this unregenerate nature be re¬ 
generated; this defiled temple, what waters shall wash it into a new 
and pure condition? All these motives and desires and evil impulses, 
the animal inspirations, what will put an end to them all, and make 
man what he was, the immaculate child of God, as Christ was, as all 
regenerated men were? [Applause.] Theological principle first, moral 
principle next, and in the third place the spiritual of the Brahmo- 
Somaj. 

Devotions, repentance, prayer, praise, faith; throwing ourselves 
entirely and absolutely upon the spirit of God and upon His saving 
love. Moral aspirations do not mean holiness; a desire of being good 
does not mean to be good. The bullock that carries on his back 
hundred-weights of sugar does not taste a grain of sweetness because 
of its unbearable load. And all our aspirations, and all our fine wishes, 
and all our fine dreams and fine sermons, either hearing or speaking 
them—going to sleep over them or listening to them intently—these 
will never make a life perfect. Devotion only, prayer, direct percep¬ 
tion of God’s spirit, communion with Him, absolute self-abasement 
before His majesty; devotional fervor, devotional excitement, spiritual 
absorption, living and moving in God—that, is the secret of personal 
holiness 

And in the third stage of our career, therefore, spiritual excite¬ 
ment, long devotions, intense fervor, contemplation, endless self- 
abasement, not merely before God but before man, became the rule of 
our lives. God is unseen; it does not harm anybody or make him 
appear less respectable if he says to God: “I am a sinner; forgive 
me.” But to make your confessions before man, to abase yourselves 
before your brothers and sisters, to take the dust off the feet of holy 
men, to feel that you are a miserable, wretched object in God’s hoiy 
congregation—-that requires a little self-humiliation, a little moral 
courage. Our devotional life, therefore, is two-fold, bearing reverence 
and trust for God and reverence and trust for man, and in our infant 
and apostolical church we have, therefore, often immersed ourselves 
into spiritual practices which would seem absurd to you if I were to 
relate them in your hearing. 

The last principle I have to take up is the progressiveness of the 
Brahmo-Somaj. Theology is good; moral resolutions are good; de¬ 
votional fervor is good. The problem is, How shall we go on ever and 
ever in an onward way, in the upper path of progress and approach 
toward divine perfection? God is infinite; what limit is there in His 
goodness or His wisdom or His righteousness? All the Scriptures 
sing His glory; all the prophets in the heaven declare His majesty; 
all the martyrs have reddened the world with their blood in order 
that His holiness might be known. God is the one infinite good; 
and, after we had made our three attempts of theological, moral and 
spiritual principle, the question came that God is the one eternal and 
infinite, the inspirer of all human kind. The part of our progress then 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


247 


lay toward allying ourselves, toward affiliating ourselves with the 
faith and the righteousness and wisdom of all religions and all man¬ 
kind. 

Christianity declares the glory of God; Hinduism speaks about 
His infinite and eternal excellence; Mohammedanism, with fire and 
sword, proves the almightiness of His will; Buddhism says how joy¬ 
ful and peaceful He is. He is the God of all religions, of all denom¬ 
inations, of all lands, of all Scriptures, and our progress lay in har¬ 
monizing these various systems, these various prophecies and devel¬ 
opments into one great system. Hence the new system of religion in 
the Brahmo-Somaj is called the New Dispensation. The Christian 
speaks in terms of admiration of Christianity; so does the Hebrew of 
Judaism; so does the Mohammedan of the Koran; so does the Zoroas- 
trian of the Zend-Avesta. The Christian admires his principles of 
spiritual culture; the Hindu does the same; the Mohammedan does 
the same. 

But the Brahmo-Somaj accepts and harmonizes all these precepts, 
systems, principles, teachings and disciplines and makes them into one 
system, and that is his religion. For a whole decade, my friend, 
Keshub Chunder Sen, myself and other apostles of the Brahmo-Somaj 
have traveled from village to village, from province to province, from 
continent to continent, declaring this new dispensation and the har¬ 
mony of all religious prophecies and systems unto the glory of the one 
true, living God But we are a subject race; we are uneducated; we 
are incapable; we have not the resources of money to get men to listen 
to our message. In the fullness of time you have called this august 
parliament of religions, and the message that we could not propagate 
you have taken into your hands to propagate. We have made that 
the gospel of our very lives, the ideal of our very being. 

I do not come to the sessions of this parliament as a mere student, 
not as one who has to justify his own system. I come as a disciple, as 
a follower, as a brother. May your labors be blessed with prosperity, 
and not only shall your Christianity and your America be exalted, but 
the Brahmo-Somaj will feel most exalted; and this poor man who has 
come such a long distance to crave your sympathy and your kindness 
shall feel himself amply rewarded. 

May the spread of the New Dispensation rest with you and make 
you our brothers and sisters. Representatives of all religions, may all 
your religions merge into the Fatherhood of God and in the brother¬ 
hood of man, that Christ's prophecy may be fulfilled, the world’s hope 
may be fulfilled, and mankind may become one kingdom with God, our 
Father, 



Buddhist Temple, Bangkok, Siam, 
















XL 

CONFUCIANISM. 



» 






Confucianism. 


E system of belief and practice taught by Con¬ 
fucius. The proper Chinese name of this dis¬ 
tinguished man was K’ung-foo-tsze, meaning 
the master K’ung. According to Mr. Legge, 
professor of the Chinese language and litera¬ 
ture in Oxford University, England, he was 
born of very good family, in the year B. C. 
551, in Lu, one of the Chinese feudal states. 
He died in B. C. 478, aged about seventy-three. 
Five books are said to have been compiled by 
Confucius, and four by his disciples; the 
former are looked upon with the same ven¬ 
eration as the canonical Scriptures among our¬ 
selves; the latter, also, are sacred. 

Confucius was highly distinguished as a 
teacher of ethics. He formulated a faint re¬ 
semblance to the golden rule, which is not found in its condensed 
expression in the old Chinese classics (A. D. 500). Tsze-kung having 
on one occasion asked him if there was one word which would serve as 
a rule of conduct for all the life, he replied: “ Is not reciprocity such 
a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do ?iot do to others.” 
But when Laotsze, who was his contemporary, being born B. C. 601, 
enunciated the still more advanced morality of returning good for 
evil, Confucius, being consulted on the subject by one of his disciples, 
rejected it, saying: “What, then, will you return for good? Recom¬ 
pense injury with justice, and return good for good.” It is a mistake 
to say that Confucius inculcated the golden rule. 

Confucius attached very great importance to obedience on the 
part of children to their parents, and to veneration on the part of peo¬ 
ple in general to their ancestors. The extension of the same doctrine 
led to his regarding all society in each kingdom as a great family, in all 
circumstances owing passive obedience to its sovereign. This tenet of 
Confucius has rendered his system highly popular with the successive 
Emperors of China and the Chinese dignitaries generally. 

By most persons Confucianism is viewed simply as a system 
of ethics and of politics. Prof. Legge is of opinion that it is a great 
error to fail in regarding it also as a religion. Confucius professed 
to revere the Chinese faith, and to revive or advocate it, instead 

251 




252 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


of setting it aside. That ancient belief was at first monotheistic, 
but in process of time it had become corrupted by a subordinate 
worship of multitudinous spirits on the one hand, and by superstitious 
divination on the other. Prof. Legge, therefore, regards the term 
Confucianism as covering first of all the ancient religion of China, 
and then the views of the great philosopher himself in illustration 
or modification of its teachings, as when there are comprehended 
under Christianity, the doctrines of the Old Testament as well as the 
New. He worshiped T’ien (Heaven), but Heaven used by metonymy 
for God. At the same time there was a more specific word for God, 
Ti (Lordship or Government), more fully Shang Ti (Supreme Lord- 
ship or Government), which he might have employed, but ignored. 
During the thousand years which preceded the twenty-third century 
B. C. there had been instituted a worship of God for all the people, 
the officiator being the king; also a worship of ancestors by all, 
or at least by heads of families for themselves and their households. 
Substitution had no place in the religious sacrifices. A part of filial 
piety was the worship of parents; that of forefathers generally was 
also enjoined, prayers being offered to the dead. Nothing is stated 
explicitly about the state of the departed. Future retribution is in this 
life. As a religion Confucianism is better adapted to the more thought¬ 
ful of the Chinese than to the common people, the latter feeling 
more attached to Buddhism. ( Prof. Legge: Religions of China (1880), 
lect. i., ii., Confucianism, etc.)—American Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 

Confucius made man only the subject of his study and abstained 
from discoursing on wonders, brute force, rebellion, and spirits. In 
connection with this subject, he says that the art of rendering effective 
services to the people consists in keeping aloof from spirits as well as 
holding them in respect. “ We have not yet performed our duties to 
men,” says he, “ how can we perform our duties to spirits? ” “ We know 
not as yet about life; how can we know about death? ” “ He who has 

sinned against Heaven has no place to pray.” “ The master minds that 
ruled in ancient times,” says he in his notes to the Book of Changes, 
“ instructed the people how to live in conformity with the laws of 
nature, and thus won their respect and confidence.” Again he says: 
“The changes are in perfect accordance with the laws of nature; con¬ 
sequently they pervade the whole system of nature. They are noted 
in the observation of heavenly bodies, and in the investigation of ter¬ 
restrial phenomena; consequently from them may be learned the cause 
of light and darkness. They commence at the beginning and return 
at the end; consequently from them may be learned the theories of 
life and death. They show that the body is but a concretion of 
elementary essences which may be transformed into flitting spirits; 
consequently from them may be learned the nature of souls and 
spirits.” Still he is silent on the cause of light and darkness that may 
be learned, on the theories of life and death that may be learned, and 
on the nature of souls and spirits that may be learned. As long as 
one fulfills the duties of life conscientiously, one has, in fact, followed 
the path of virtue, and avoided the path of wickedness, thus holding in 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


253 


his hands the means of securing happiness and keeping back misfor¬ 
tune. What harm is there if such a one has never heard of the laws of 
nature or the laws of the spiritual world, and does not know anything 
about prayer? Therefore, the wise rulers of antiquity laid down the 
rules of propriety and the principles of instruction so clearly that men 
of the lowest as well as of the highest order of intelligence could all 
understand them and easily carry them out, in the hope that the peo¬ 
ple would not turn away from the duties of life to speculations on the 
laws of nature and the laws of the spiritual world. What are the duties 
of life? They consist of nothing else than that sovereigns should 
be humane; subjects loyal; parents loving; children obedient; hus¬ 
bands faithful; wives devoted; elder brothers respectful; friends true 
to each other. The three superior claims and the five social relations 
are grounded upon the necessities of nature and fully recognized by 
all men. The wise and the foolish, the high and the low, are equally 
bound by these natural ties. For this reason the intelligent portion of 
the Chinese people have always ranged themselves among the follow¬ 
ers of Confucius, who may be said to have succeeded to the privileges 
of the ancient priesthood without adopting the practice of the great 
teachers of the West in making religious worship the basis of their 
systems of education. 




JAPANESE IDOL, THE GOLDEN DOLPHIN 










(Confucianism. 


By Hon. PUNG KWANG YU, First Secretary of the Chinese Legation, 

Washington, D. C. 



LL Chinese reformers of ancient and modern 
times have either exercised supreme authority 
as political heads of the nation or filled high 
posts as ministers of state. The only notable 
exception is Confucius. “Man,” says Con¬ 
fucius in the Book of Rites, “is the product of 
heaven and earth, the union of the active and 
passive principles, the conjunction of the soul 
and spirit, and the ethereal essence of the five 
elements.” Again he says: “Man is the heart 
of heaven and earth, and the nucleus of the 
five elements, formed by assimilating food, by 
distinguishing sounds and by the action of light.” 
Now, the heaven and earth, the active and passive 
principles, and the soul and spirit are dualisms resulting 
from unities. The product of heaven and earth, the union 
of the active and passive principles, the conjunction of the 
soul and spirit, are unities resulting from dualisms. Man, 
being the connecting link between unities and dualisms, is, therefore, 
called the heart of heaven and earth. By reason of his being the heart 
of heaven and earth humanity is his natural faculty and love his con¬ 
trolling emotion. “Humanity,” says Confucius, “is the characteristic 
of man.” On this account humanity stands at the head of the five fac¬ 
ulties, or the innate qualities of the soul, namely, humanity, rectitude, 
propriety, understanding and truthfulness. Humanity must have the 
social relations for its sphere of action. Love must begin at home. 

What are the social relations? They are the sovereign and sub¬ 
ject, parent and child, husband and wife, elder and young brothers and 
friends. These are called the five relations or natural relations. As 
the relation of husband and wife must have been recognized before 
that of sovereign or subject, or that of parent and child, the relation of 
husband and wife is, therefore, the first of the social relations. The 
relation of husband and wife bears a certain analogy to that of “kien” 
and “kium.” The word kien may be taken in the sense of heaven, 

255 



‘256 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


sovereign, parent or husband. As the earth is subservient to heaven* 
so is the subject subservient to the sovereign, the child to the parent 
and the wife to the husband. These three mainstays of the social 
structure have their origin in the law of nature, and do not owe their 
existence to the invention of men. 

The emotions are but the manifestations of the soul’s faculties 
when acted upon by external objects. There are seven emotions, 
namely, joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate and desire. The faculties 
of the soul derive their origin from nature, and are, therefore, called 
natural faculties; the emotions emanate from man, and are, therefore, 
called human emotions. 

Humanity sums up the virtues of the five natural faculties. Filial 
duty lies at the foundation of humanity. The sense of propriety serves 
to regulate the emotions. The recognition of the relation of husband 
and wife is the first step in the cultivation and development of 
humanity. The principles that direct human progress are sincerity 
and charity, and the principles that carry it forward are devotion and 
honor. “Do not unto others,” says Confucius, “whatsoever ye would 
not that others should do unto you.” Again, he says: 

“Anoble-minded man has four rules to regulate his conduct: To 
serve one’s parents in such a manner as is required of a son; to serve 
one’s sovereign in such a manner as is required of a subject; to serve 
one’s elder brother in such a manner as is required of a younger 
brother; to set an example of dealing with one’s friends in such a 
manner as is required of friends.” 

This succinct statement puts in a nutshell all the requirements of 
sincerity, charity, devotion and honor; in other words, of humanity 
itself. Therefore, all natural virtues and established doctrines that 
relate to the duties of man in his relations to society must have their 
origin in humanity. On the other hand, the principle that regulates 
the actions and conduct of men, from beginning to end, can be no 
other than propriety. 

What are the rules of propriety ? The “Book of Rites” treats of such 
as relate to ceremonies on attaining majority, marriages, funerals, sac¬ 
rifices, court receptions, banquets, the worship of heaven, the observ¬ 
ance of stated feasts, the sphere of woman and the education of youth. 
The rules of propriety are based on rectitude and should be carried out 
with understanding, so as to show their truth, to the end that humanity 
may appear in its full splendor. The aim is to enable the five innate 
qualities of the soul to have full and free play, and yet to enable each 
in its action to promote the action of the rest. If we were to go into 
details on this subject and enlarge on the various lines of thought as 
they present themselves we should find that myriads of words and 
thousands of paragraphs would not suffice, for then we should have to 
deal with such problems as relate to the observation of facts, the sys¬ 
tematization of knowledge, the establishment of right principles, the 
rectification of the heart, the disciplining of self, the regulation of the 
family, the government of the nation and the pacification of the world. 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


257 


Such are the elements of instruction and self-education which Confu- 
ciamsts consider as essential to make man what he ought to be. 

. rnan only a species of naked animal. He was naturally 

stricken with fear and went so far as to worship animals against which 
he was helpless. To this may be traced the origin of religious wor¬ 
ship. It was only man, however, that n&ture had endowed with intel¬ 
ligence. On this account he could take advantage of the natural ele¬ 
ments, and his primary object was to increase the comforts and remove 
the dangers of life. As he passed from a savage to a civilized state he 
initiated movements for the education of the rising generation by 
defining the relations and duties of society and by laying special 
emphasis on the disciplining of self. Therefore, man is called the 
“nucleus of the five elements and the ethereal essence of the five ele¬ 
ments formed by assimilating food, by distinguishing sounds and by 
the action of light.” Herein lies the dignity of human nature Herein 
we recognize the chief characteristic that distinguishes man from ani¬ 
mals. 

The various tribes of feathered, haired, scaled, or shelled animals, 
to be sure, are not entirely incapable of emotion. As emotions are 
only phenomena of the soul’s different faculties, animals may be said 
to possess, to a limited degree, faculties similar to the faculties of man, 
and are not therefore entirely devoid of the pure essence of nature. 
From the beginning of the creation the intelligence of animals has 
remained the same, and will doubtless remain the same until the end 
of time. They are incapable of improvement or progress. This shows 
that the substance of their organization must be derived from the im¬ 
perfect and gross elements of the earth, so that when it unites with 
the ethereal elements to form the faculties, the spiritual qualities can 
not gain full play, as in the case of man. “In the evolution of the 
animated creation,” says Confucius, in connection with this subject, 
“nature can only act upon the substance of each organized being, and 
bring out its innate qualities. She, therefore, furnishes proper nour¬ 
ishment to those individuals that stand erect and trample upon those 
individuals that lie prostrate.” The idea is that nature has no fixed 
purpose. 

As for man, he also has natural imperfections. This is what Con- 
fucianists call essential imperfections in the constitution. The reason 
is that the organizations which different individuals have received 
from the earth are very diverse in character. It is but natural that the 
faculties of different individuals should develop abilities and capabili¬ 
ties which are equally diverse in degrees and kinds. It is not that 
different individuals have received from nature different measures of 
intelligence. 

Man only can remove the imperfections inherent in the substance 
of his organization by directing his mind to intellectual pursuits, by 
abiding in virtue, by following the dictates of humanity, by subduing 
anger, and by restraining the appetites. Lovers of mankind, who have 
the regeneration of the v/orld at heart, would doubtless consider it 

n 


258 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


desirable to have some moral panacea which could completely remove 
all the imperfections from the organic substance of the human 
species, so that the whole race might be reformed with ease and ex¬ 
pedition. But such a method of procedure does not seem to be the 
way in which nature works. She only brings out the innate qualities 
of every substance. Still it is worth while to cherish such a desire on 
account of its tendency to elevate human nature, though we know it 
to be impossible of fulfillment, owing to the limitations of the human 
organization. 

Man is then endowed with the faculties of the highest dignity. 
Vet there are those who so far degrade their manhood as to give 
themselves up to the unlimited indulgence of those appetites which 
they have in common with birds, beasts and fishes, to the utter loss of 
their moral sense without being sensible of their degradation, perhaps. 
In case they have really become insensible then even heaven cannot 
possibly do anything with them. But if they, at any time, become 
sensible of their condition, they must be stricken with a sense of 
shame, not unmingled, perhaps, with fear and trembling If, after 
experiencing a sense of shame, mingled with fear and trembling, they 
repent of their evil doings, then they become men again with their 
humanity restored. This is a doctrine maintained by all the schools 
oi Confucianists. 

“Reason,” says Confucius in his notes to the “ Book of Changes,” 
“consists in the proper union of the active and passive principles of 
nature” Again, he says: “What is called spirit is the inscrutable 
state of ‘yin’ and ‘yang/ or the passive and active principles of nature.” 
Now, “yang” is heaven, or ether. Whenever ether, by condensation, 
assumes a substantive form and remains suspended in the heavens, 
there is an admixture of the active and passive principles of nature, 
with the active principle predominating. “Yin,” or the passive prin¬ 
ciple of nature, is earth or substance. Whenever a substance which 
has the property of absorbing ether is attracted to the earth there is 
an admixture of the active and passive principles of nature, with the 
passive principle predominating. 

As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, its going and 
coming making one day, so the quantity of ether which the earth 
holds varies from time to time. Exhalation follows absorption; sys¬ 
tole succeeds diastole. It is these small changes that produce day 
and night. As the sun travels also from north to south and makes a 
complete revolution in one year, so the quantity of ether which the 
earth holds varies from time to time. Exhalation follows absorp¬ 
tion; systole succeeds diastole. It is these great changes that produce 
heat and cold. The movements of the active and passive principles 
of the universe bear a certain resemblance to the movements of the 
sun. There are periods of rest, periods of activity, periods of expan¬ 
sion, and periods of contraction. The two principles may sometimes 
repel each other but can never go beyond e^ch other’s influences. 
They may also attract each other, but do not by this means spend their 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


259 


force. They seem to permeate all things from beginning to end 
They are invisible and inaudible, yet it cannot be said for this reason 
they do not exist. This is what is meant by inscrutability, and this is 
what Confucius calls spirit. 

Still it is necessary to guard against confounding this conception 
of spirit with that of nature. Nature is an entirely active element and 
must needs have a passion element to operate upon in order to bring 
out its energy. On the other hand, it is also an error to confound 
spirit with matter. Matter is entirely passive and must needs have 
some active element to act upon it in order to concentrate its virtues. 
It is to the action and reaction, as well as to the mutual sustentation of 
the essences of the active and passive principles, that the spirit of any¬ 
thing owes its being. In case there is no union of the active and pas¬ 
sive principles, the ethereal and substantive elements lie separate, and 
the influences of the heavens and the earth cannot come into conjunc¬ 
tion. This being the case, whence can spirits derive their substance? 
Thus the influences of the heavens and material objects must act and 
react upon each other, and enter into the composition of each other, 
in order to enable every material object to incorporate a due propor¬ 
tion of energy with its virtues. Each object is then able to assume its 
proper form, whether large or small, and acquire the properties pecu¬ 
liar to its constitution, to the end that it may fulfill its functions in the 
economy of nature. 

For example, the spirits of mountains, hills, rivers and marshes 
are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power in winds, 
clouds, thunders and rains. The spirits of birds, quadrupeds, insects 
and fishes are invisible; we see only the manifestations of their power 
in flying, running, burrowing and swimming. The spirits of terrestrial 
and aquatic plants are invisible; we see only the manifestations of 
their power in flowers, fruits and the various tissues. The spirit of 
man is invisible; yet when we consider that the eyes can see, the ears 
can hear, the mouth can distinguish flavors, the nose can smell and the 
mind can grasp what is most minute as well as what is most remote, 
how can we account for all this? 

In the case of man, the spirit is in a more concentrated and better 
disciplined state than the spirits of the rest of the created things. On 
this account the spirit of man after death, though separated from 
the body, is still able to retain its essential virtues and does not become 
<*asil*y dissipated. This is the ghost or disembodied spirit. 

The followers of Taoism and Buddhism often speak of immortality 
and everlasting life. Accordingly they subject themselves to a course 
of discipline, in the hope that they may by this means attain to that 
happy Buddhistic or Taoistic existence. They aim merely to free the 
spirit from the limitations of the body. Taoist and Buddhist priests 
often speak of the rolls of spirits and the records of souls, and make 
frequent mention of heaven and hell. They seek to inculcate that the 
good will receive their due reward and the wicked will suffer eternal 
punishment. They mean to convey the idea, of course, that rewards 



A CHINESE TEMPLE 



























THE religions of the world . 


261 


and punishments will be dealt out to the spirts of men after death 
according to theii deserts. Such beliefs doubtless had their origin in 
attempts to influence the actions of men by appealing to their likes 
and dislikes. I he purpose of inducing men to do good and forsake 
^vi 1 by presenting in striking contrast a hereafter to be striven for 
and a heieaftei to be avoided is laudable enough in some respects. 
But it is the perpetuation of falsehood by slavishly clinging to errors 
that deserve condemnation. For this reason Confucianists do not 
accept such doctrines, though they make no attempt to suppress them. 

“We cannot as yet,” says Confucius, “perform our duties to men; 
how can we perform our duties to spirits?” Again, he says: “We 
know not as yet about life; how can we know about death?” “From 
this time on,” says Tsang-tze,“I know that I am saved.” “Let my 
consistent actions remain,” says Chang-tze,“and I shall die in peace.” 
It will be seen that the wise and good men of China have never 
thought it advisable to give up teaching the duties of life and turn to 
speculations on the conditions of souls and spirits after death. But 
from various passages, in the “Book of Changes,” it may be inferred that 
the souls of men after death are in the same state as they were before 
birth. 

Why is it that Confucianists apply the word “ti” to heaven and 
not to spirits? The reason is that there is but one “ti,” or Supreme 
Ruler, the governor of all subordinate spirits, who cannot be said to 
be propitious or unpropitious, beneficent or maleficent. Inferior 
spirits, on the other hand, owe their existence to material substances. 
A.s substances have noxious or useful properties, so some spirits may 
be propitious, others unpropitious, and some benevolent, others malev¬ 
olent. Man is part of the material universe; the spirit of man, a spe¬ 
cies of spirits. 

All created things can be distributed into groups, and individuals 
of the same species are generally found together. A man, therefore, 
whose heart is good, must have a good spirit. By reason of the influ¬ 
ence exerted by one .spirit upon another, a good spirit naturally tends 
to attract all other propitious and good spirits. This is happiness. 
Now, if every individual has a good heart, then from the action and 
reaction of spirit upon spirit, only propitious and good influences can 
flow. The country is blessed with prosperity; the government fulfills 
its purpose. What happiness can be compared with this? 

On the other hand, when a man has an evil heart his spirit cannot 
but be likewise evil. On account of the influence exerted by one 
spirit upon another, the call of this spirit naturally meets with ready 
responses from all other unpropitious and evil spirits. This is misery. 
If every individual harbors an evil heart, then a responsive chord is 
struck in all unpropitious and evil spirits. Evil influences are scattered 
over the country. Misfortunes and calamities overtake the land. 
There is an end of good government. What misery can be compared 
with this? 

Thus, in the administration of public affairs, a wise legislator 


262 


TIIE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


always takes into consideration the spirit of the times in devising 
means for the advancement and promotion of civilization. He puts 
his reliance on ceremonies and music to carry on the good work, and 
makes use of punishments and the sword as a last resort, in accord¬ 
ance with the good or bad tendency of the age. His aim is to restore 
the human heart to its pristine innocence by establishing a standard 
of goodness and by pointing out a way of salvation to every creature. 
The right principles of action can only be discovered by studying 
the waxing and waning of the active and passive elements of nature, 
as set forth in the“Bookof Changes,’’and surely cannot be understood 
by those who believe in what priests call the dispensations of Provi¬ 
dence. 

Human affairs are made up of thousands of acts of individuals. 
What, therefore, constitutes a good action, and what a bad action? 
What is done for the sake of others is disinterested; a disinterested 
action is good and may be called beneficial. What is done for the 
sake of one’s self is selfish; a selfish action is bad and naturally 
springs from avarice. 

Suppose there is a man who has never entertained a good thought 
and never done a good deed, does it stand to reason that such a 
wretch can, by means of sacrifices and prayers, attain to the blessings 
of life? Let us take the opposite case and suppose that there is a 
man who has never harbored a bad thought and never done a bad 
deed, does it stand to reason that there is no escape for such a man 
from adverse fortune except through prayers and sacrifices? “ My 
prayers,” says Confucius, “ were offered up long ago.” The meaning 
he wishes to convey is that he considers his prayers to consist in liv¬ 
ing a virtuous life and in constantly obeying the dictates of con¬ 
science. 

He, therefore, looks upon prayers as of no avail to deliver any one 
from sickness. “He who sins against heaven,” again he says, “has no 
place to pray.” What he means is that even spirits have no power to 
bestow blessings on those who have sinned against the decrees of 
heaven. 

The wise and the good, however, make use of offerings and 
sacrifices simply as a means of purifying themselves from the contam¬ 
ination of the world, so that they become susceptible of spiritual 
influences and be in sympathetic touch with the invisible world, to the 
end that calamities may be averted and blessings secured thereby. 
Still, sacrifices cannot be offered by all persons without distinction 
Only the emperor can offer sacrifices to heaven. Only governors 
of provinces can offer sacrifices to the spirits of mountains and rivers, 
land and agriculture. Lower officers of the government can offer sac ¬ 
rifices only to their ancestors of the five preceding generations, but 
are not allowed to offer sacrifices to heaven. The common people, 
of course, are likewise denied this privilege. They can offer sacrifices 
only to their ancestors. 

All persons, from the emperor down to the common people, are 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


263 


strictly required to observe the worship of ancestors. The only way in 
which a virtuous man and a dutiful son can show his sense of obligation to 
the authors of his being is to serve them when dead, as when they were 
alive, when departed as when present. It is for this reason that the 
most enlightened rulers have always made filial duty the guiding prin¬ 
ciple of government. Observances of this character have nothing to 
do with religious celebrations and ceremonies. 

Toward the close of the Ming dynasty the local authorities of a 
certain district invited a priest from Tsoh to live in their midst. The 
people began to vie with one another in their eagerness to worship the 
new-fangled deities of Tsoh. Shortly afterward an. invitation was 
extended to a priest from Yueh to settle there also. Then the people, 
in like manner, began to vie with one another in their eagerness to 
worship the new-fangled deities of Yueh. The Tsoh priest, stirred up 
with envy, declared to the people that the heaven he taught was the 
only true heaven, and the deities he served were the only true deities, 
adding, that by making use of his prayers they could obtain the for¬ 
giveness of their sins and the blessings of life, and if they did not 
make use of his prayers even the good could not attain to happiness. 
He at the same time denounced the teachings of the Yueh priest as 
altogether false. The Yueh priest then returned the compliment in 
similar but more energetic language. Yet they made no attack on the 
inefficiency of prayers, the reason being that both employed the same 
kind of tools in carrying on their trade. 

To say that there are true and false deities is reasonable enough. 
But can heaven be so divided that one part may be designated as 
belonging to Tsoh and another part to Yueh? It is merely an attempt 
to practice on the credulity of men, to dogmatize on the dispensation 
of Providence, by saying that no blessings can fall to the lot of the 
good without prayer, and that prayer can turn into a blessing the 
retribution that is sure to overtake the wicked- 

















Prize ^ssay on Confucianism. 

By KUNG HSIEN HO, of Shanghai, China. 



HE most important thing in the superior man’s 
learning is to fear disobeying heaven’s will. 
t»|Ur/ wr - Therefore in our Confucian religion the most 

important thing is to follow the will of heaven. 
^ 7 * The book of Yih King says, “In the changes of 

the world there is a great Supreme which pro¬ 
duces two principles, and these two principles 
are Yin and Yang. By Supreme is meant the 
spring of all activity. Our sages regard Yin 
and Yang and the five elements as acting and 
reacting on each other without ceasing, and 
this doctrine is all important, like as the hinge 
of a door. 

The incessant production of all things 
depends on this, as the tree does on the root. 
Even all human affairs and all good are also 
dependent on it; therefore, it is called the Supreme, just as we speak 
of the extreme points of the earth as the north and south poles. 

By Great Supreme is meant that there is nothing above it. But 
heaven is without sound or smell, therefore, the ancients spoke of the 
infinite and the great supreme. The great supreme producing Yin 
and Yang is law-producing forces. When Yang and Yin unite they 
produce water, fire, wood, metal, earth. When these five forces oper¬ 
ate in harmony the four seasons come to pass. The essences of the 
infinite, of Yin and Yang, and of the five elements combine, and the 
heavenly become male, and the earthly become female. When these 
powers act on each other all things are produced and reproduced and 
developed without end 

As to man, he is the best and most intelligent of all This is what 
is meant in the book of Chung Yung when it says that what heaven 
has given is the spiritual nature. This nature is law. All men are 
thus born and have this law. Therefore it is Mencius says that all 
children love their parents-, and when grown up all respect their elder 
brethren. If men only followed the natural bent of this nature, then 
nil would go the right way; hence, the Chung Yung says, “To follow 
nature is the right way." 


265 



266 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


The choicest product of Ying Yang and the five elements in the 
world is man, the rest are refuse products. The choicest among the 
choice ones are the sages and worthies, and the refuse among them are 
the foolish and the bad. And as man’s body comes from the Yin and 
man’s soul from the Yang he Cannot be perfect. This is what the Lung 
philosophers called the material nature. Although all men have at 
birth a nature for goodness, still, if there is nothing to fix it, then de¬ 
sires arise and passions rule, and men are not far from being like 
beasts; hence, Confucius says: “Men’s nature is originally alike, but in 
practice men become very different.” The sages, knowing this, sought 
to fix the nature with the principles of moderation, uprightness, benev¬ 
olence and righteousness. Heaven appointed rulers and teachers, who 
in turn established worship and music to improve men’s disposition 
and set up governments and penalties in order to check men’s wicked¬ 
ness. The best among the people are taken into schools where they 
study wisdom, virtue, benevolence and righteousness, so that they may 
know before hand how to conduct themselves as rulers or ruled. 

And lest after many generations, there should be degeneration 
and difficulty in finding the truth, the principles of heaven and earth, 
of men and of all things, have been recorded in the Book of Odes for 
the use of after generations. The Chung Yung calls the practice of 
wisdom religion. Our religion well knows heaven’s will; it looks on 
all under heaven as one family, great rulers as elder branches in their 
parent’s clan, great ministers as chief officers of this clan and people at 
large as brothers of the same parents; and it holds that all things 
should be enjoyed in common, because it regards heaven and earth as 
the parents of all alike. And the commandment of the Confucian is 
“Fear greatly lest you offend against heaven.” 

But what Confucians lay great stress on is human affairs. What 
are these? These are the five relations and the five constants. What 
are the five relations? They are those of sovereign and minister, 
father and son, elder and younger brother, husband and wife, 
and that between friend and friemd. Now, the ruler is the Son of 
heaven, to be honored above all others; therefore, in serving Him 
there has to be loyalty. The parents’ goodness to their children is 
boundless; therefore the parent should be served filialy. Brothers are 
branches from the same root; therefore, mutual respect is important. 
The marriage relation is the origin of all human relations; therefore, 
mutual gentleness is important. As to friends, though as if strangers 
to our homes, it is important to be very affectionate. 

When one desires to make progress in the practice of virtue as 
ruler or minister, as parent or child, as elder or younger brother, or 
as husband and wife; if anyone wishes to be perfect in any relation, 
how can it be done without a friend to exhort one to good and check 
one in evil? Therefore, one should seek to increase his friends. 
Among the five relations there are also the three hands. The ruler is 
the hand of the minister, the father is that of the son, and the husband 
is that of the wife. And the book of the Ta Hsioh says: “From the 


the religions of the world. 


267 


emperor down to the common people the fundamental thing for all 
[°. do , 1S to cultivate virtue.” If this fundamental foundation is not 
laid, then there cannot be order in the world. Therefore, great 
1 esponsibility lies on the leaders This is what Confucius means when 

he says: “When a ruler is upright he is obeyed without com¬ 
mands. 

Now, to cause the doctrine of the five relations to be carried out 
everywhere by all under heaven, the ruler must be intelligent and the 
minister good, then the government will be just; the father must be 
loving and the son filial, the elder brother friendly, the younger brother 
respectful, the husband kind and the wife obedient, then the home will 
be light; in our relation with our friends there must be confidence, 
then customs will be reformed and order will not be difficult for the 
whole world, simply because the rulers lay the foundation for it in 
virtue. 

What are the five constants? Benevolence, righteousness, wor¬ 
ship, wisdom, faithfulness. Benevolence is love, righteousness is fit¬ 
ness, worship is principle, wisdom is thorough knowledge, faithfulness 
is what one can depend on. He who is able to restore the original 
good nature and to hold fast to it is called a worthy. He who has got 
hold of the spiritual nature and is at peace and rest is called a sage. 
He who sends forth unseen and infinite influences throughout all things 
is called divine The influence of the five constants is very great and 
all living things are subject to them. 

Mencius says: “He who has no pity is not a man; he who has no 
sense of shame for wrong is not a man; he who has no yielding dispo¬ 
sition is not a man, and he who has not the sense of right and wrong is 
not a man. The sense of pity is the beginning of benevolence, the 
sense of shame for wrong is the beginning of righteousness, a yielding 
disposition is the beginning of religion, the sense of right and wrong is 
the beginning of wisdom. Faithfulness is not spoken of, as it is what 
makes the other four real; like the earth element among the five 
elements, without it the other four manifestly cannot be placed. 

The: Chung Yung says: “Sincerity or reality is the beginning and 
the end of things There is no such thing as supreme sincerity with¬ 
out action, This is the use of faithfulness ” 

As to benevolence, it also includes righteousness, religion and 
wisdom, therefore,the sages consider that the most important thing 
is to get benevolence. The idea of benevolence is gentleness and 
liberal mindedness, that of righteousness is clear duty, that of religion 
is showing forth, that of wisdom is to gather silently. When there is 
gentleness, clear duty, showing forth and silent gathering constantly 
going on, then everything naturally falls to its proper place, just like 
the four seasons; e. g.\ the spring influences are gentle and liberal and 
are life-giving ones; in summer life-giving things grow; in autumn 
these show themselves in harvest and in winter they are stored up. If 
there were no spring the other three seasons would have nothing; so it 
is said the benevolent man is the life. Extend and develop this 


268 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


benevolence and all under heaven may be benefited thereby. This is 
how to observe human relation. 

As to the doctrine of future life. Confucianism speaks of it most 
minutely. Cheng Tsze says the spirits are the forces or servants of 
heaven and earth and signs of creative power. Chu Fu Tsze says: 
“Speaking of two powers, the demons are the intelligent ones of Yin, 
the gods are the intelligent ones of Yang; speaking of one power, the 
supreme and originating is called God, the reverse and the returning 
is demon.” 

Confucius, replying to Tsai Wo, says: “When flesh and bones 
die below the dust the material Yin becomes dust, but the immaterial 
rises above the grave in great light, has odor and is very pitiable. 
This is the immaterial essence.” The Chung Yung, quoting Confu¬ 
cius, says: “The power of the spirits is very great! You look and 
cannot see them, you listen and cannot hear them, but they are em¬ 
bodied in all things without missing any, causing all men to reverence 
them and be purified, and be well adorned in order to sacrifice unto 
them ” All things are alive, as if the gods were right above our heads 
or on our right hand or on the left. Yih King makes much of divin- 
ing to get decisions from the gods, knowing that the gods are the 
forces of heaven and earth in operation. Although unseen, still they 
influence; if difficult to prove, yet easily known. The great sages 
and great worthies, the loyal ministers, the righteous scholars, filial 
sons, the pure women of the world having received the purest influ¬ 
ences of the divinest forces of heaven and earth, when on earth were 
heroes, when dead are the gods. Their influences continue for many 
generations to affect the world for good, therefore many venerate and 
sacrifice unto them. 

As to evil men, they arise from the evil forces of nature; when 
dead, they also influence for evil, and we must get holy influences to 
destroy evil ones. 

As to rewards and punishments the ancient sages also spoke of 
them. The great Yu, B. C. 2255, said: “Follow what is right and you 
will be fortunate; do not follow it and you will be unfortunate; the 
results are only shadows and echoes of our acts.” Tang, B. C. 1766, 
says: “ Heaven’s way is to bless the good and bring calamity on the 
evil.” His minister, Yi Yin, said: “ It is only God who is perfectly 
just; good actions are blessed with a hundred favors; evil actions are 
cursed with a hundred evils.” Confucius, speaking of the “Book of 
Changes” (Yih King), said: “Those who multiply good deeds will have 
joys to overflowing; those who multiply evil deeds will have calami¬ 
ties running over.” 

But this is very different from Taoism, which says that there are 
angels from heaven examining into men’s good and evil deeds, and 
from Buddhism, which says that there is a purgatory or hell according 
to one’s deeds. Rewards and punishments arise from our different 
actions just as water flows to the ocean and as fire seizes what is dry; 
without expecting certain consequences they come inevitably. When 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


269 


these consequences do not appear they are like cold in summer or heat 
in winter, or like both happening the same day; but this we say is 
unnatural. Therefore, it is said, sincerity is the way of heaven. If we 
say that the gods serve heaven exactly as mandarins do on earth, bring- 
ing quick retribution on every little thing, this is really to make them 
appear very slow. At present men say, “Thunder killed the bad man.” 
But it is not so, either. The Han philosopher, Tung Chung Shu (sec¬ 
ond century B. C.), says: “Vapors, when they clash above, make rain; 
when they clash below make fog; wind is nature’s breathing. Thunder 
is the sound of clouds clashing against each other. Lightning is light 
emitted by their collision. Thus we see that when a man is killed it is 
by the collision of these clouds.” 

As to becoming genii and transmigration of souls, these are still 
more beside the mark. If we became like genii, then we would live on 
without dying; how could the world hold so many? If we transmi¬ 
grate, then so many would transmigrate from the human life and ghosts 
would be numerous. Besides when the lamp goes out and is lit again 
it is not the former flame that is lit. When the cloud has a rainbow it 
rains, but it is not the same rainbow as when the rainbow appeared 
before. From this we know also that these doctrines of transmigra¬ 
tion should not be believed in. So much on the virtue of the unseen 
and hereafter. 

As to the great aim and broad basis of Confucianism, we say it 
searches into things, it extends knowledge, it has a sincere aim, i. e., to 
have a right heart, a virtuous life, so as to regulate the home, to govern 
the nation and to give peace to all under heaven. The book of “Great 
Learning,” Ja Hsigh, has already clearly spoken of these. The founda¬ 
tion is laid in illustrating virtue, for our religion in discussing govern¬ 
ment regards virtue as the foundation, and wealth as the superstructure. 
Mencius says: “When the rulers and ministers are only seeking gain 
the nation is in danger ” He also says: “There is no benevolent man 
who neglects his parents, there is no righteous man w(io helps himself 
before his ruler.” From this it is apparent what is most important. 

Not that we do not speak of gain; the “Great Learning” says: 
“There is a right way to get gain. Let the producers be many and the 
consumers few. Let there be activity in production and economy in 
the expenditure. Then the wealth will always be sufficient. But it is 
important that the high and low should share it alike.” 

As to how to govern the country and give peace to all under 
heaven the nine paths are most important, the nine paths are: Cul¬ 
tivate a good character, honor the good, love your parents, respect 
great offices, carry out the wishes of the ruler and ministers, regard 
the common people as your children, invite all kinds of skilllul work¬ 
men, be kind to strangers, have consideration for all the feudal chiefs. 
These are the great principles. 

Their origin and history may also be stated. Far up in mythical 
ancient times, before literature was known, hu Hi arose and drew the 
eight diagrams in order to understand the superhuman powers and 



His Excellency, LI HUNG CHANG. 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


271 


the nature of all things. At the time of Tang Yao (B. C. 2356) thev 
weie able to illustrate noble virtue. Nine generations lived together 
in one home in love and peace, and the people were firm and intelli- 
gent. ^ Yao handed down to Shun a saying, “Sincerely hold fast to the 
mean . Shun tiansmitted it to \ u, and said; “The mind of man is 
restless, prone to err; its affinity for the right way is small. Be dis¬ 
criminating; be undivided that you may sincerely hold fast to the 
mean.” Yu transmitted this to Tang, of the Siang dynasty (B. C. 1766) 
Tang transmitted it to Kings Wen and Wu, of the Chow dynasty (B. 
C. 1122). These tiansmitted it to Duke Kung. And these were all 
able to observe this rule of the heart by which they held fast to the 
“ mean.” 

The Chow dynasty later degenerated; then there arose Confucius, 
who transmitted the doctrines of Yao and Shun as if they had been 
his ancestors, elegantly displayed the doctrines of Wen and Wu, edited 
the odes and the history, reformed religion, made notes on the “Book 
of Changes,” wrote the annals of spring and autumn, and spoke of 
governing the nation, saying: “ Treat matters seriously and be faith¬ 
ful; be temperate and love men; employ men according to proper 
times, and in teaching your pupils you must do so with love.” He 
said to Yen Tsze; “Self-sacrifice and truth is benevolence. If you 
can for one whole day entirely sacrifice self and be true, then all under 
heaven will become benevolent.” Speaking of being able to put away 
selfishness and attaining to the truth of heaven, everything is possible 
to such a heart. 

Alas! He was not able to get his virtues put into practice, but his 
disciples recorded his words and deeds and wrote the Confucian Ana¬ 
lects. His disciple, Jseng Tsze, composed the Great Learning. His 
proud son, Tsze Sze, composed the Doctrine of the Mean (Chung 
Yung). When the contending states were quarreling, Mencius, with a 
loving heart that could not endure wrong, arose to save the times. 
The rulers of the time would not use him; so he composed a book in 
seven chapters. After this, although the ages changed this, religion 
flourished. In the Han dynasty, Tung Chung Shu (twentieth century 
B. C.); in the Sui dynasty, Wang Tung (A. D. 583-617); in the Tang 
dynasty Han Yo (A. D. 768-824), each made some part of this doc¬ 
trine better known In the Sung dynasty (960-1260) these were the 
disciples of the philosophers Cheng, Chow and Chang, searching into 
the spiritual nature of man, and Chu Fu-Tsze collected their works 
and this religion shone with great brightness. Our present dynasty, 
respecting scholarship and considering truth important, placed the 
philosopher Cho in Confucian temples to be reverenced and sacrificed 
to. Confucianists all follow Chu Fu-Tsze’s comments From ancient 
times till now those who followed the doctrines of Confucius were able 
to govern the country; whenever these were not followed there was 
disorder. 

On looking at it down the ages there is also clear evidence of re¬ 
sults in governing the country and its superiority to other religions. 


272 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


There is a prosperity of Tang Yis, of the dynasties Hsia Siang and 
Chow (B. C. 2356, B. C. 255), when virtue and good government flour¬ 
ished. It is needless to enlarge upon them. At the time of the con¬ 
tending states there arose theorists, and all under heaven became dis¬ 
ordered. The Tsin dynasty (of Tsin She-Hwang fame) burned the 
books and buried the Confucianists and did many other heartless 
things, and also went to seek the art of becoming immortal (Taoism), 
and the empire was soon lost. 

Then the Han dynasty arose (B. C. 206-A. D. 220). Although 
it leaned toward Taoism, the people, after having suffered so long 
from the cruelties of the Tsin, were easily governed. Although the 
religious rites of the Shu Sun-tung do not command our confidence, the 
elucidation of the ancient classics and books we owe mostly to the. 
Confucianists of the Han period. Although the emperor, the emperor 
Wu, of the western (early) Han dynasty, was fond of genii (Taoism), 
he knew how to select worthy ministers. Although the emperor 
Ming, of the eastern (later) Han dynasty, introduced Buddhism, he 
was able to respect the Confucian doctrines. Since so many followed 
Confucianism, good mandarins were very abundant under the eastern 
and western Han dynasties, and the dynasty lasted very long. 

Passing on to the epoch of the three kingdoms and the Tsin 
dynasty (A. D. 221-419) the people then leaned toward Taoism and 
neglected the country. Afterward the north and south quarreled and 
Emperor Laing Wu reigned the longest, but lost all by believing in 
Buddhism and going into the monastery at T^ing Tai, where he died of 
starvation at Tai Ching. When Yuen Ti came to the throne (A D. 
552) the soldiers of Wei arrived while the teaching of Taoism w r as still 
going on, and the country was ruined. It is not worth while to speak 
of the Sui dynasty. The first emperor of the Tang dynasty (618-907) 
greatly sought out famous Confucianists and increased the demand for 
scholars, so that the country was ruled almost equal to Cheng and 
Kang,of ancient times. Although there was the affair of Empress 
Woo and Lu Shan, the dynasty flourished long Its fall was because 
the emperor Huen Tsung was fond of Taoism and Buddhism, and was 
put to death by taking wrong medicine. The emperor Mu Tsung also 
believed in Taoism, but got ill by eating immortality pills. After this 
the emperor Wu Tsung was fond of Taoism and reigned only a short 
time. The emperor Tsung followed Buddhism and the dynasty fell 
into a precarious condition. 

Passing by the five dynasties (907-960) on to the first emperor of 
the Sung dynasty (960-1360) who, cherishing the people and having 
good government, step by step prospered—when Jen Tsung'ruled he 
reverenced heaven and cared for the people; he reformed the punish¬ 
ment and lightened the taxes, and was assisted by such scholars as 
Han Ki, Fan Chung Yen, Foo Pih, Ou Yang Sui, Wen Yen Poh and 
Chas Pien. They established the government at the mountain Pas 
Sang and raised the people to the state of peace which is still in every 
home. Such government may be called benevolent. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


273 


Afterward there arose the troubles of Kin, when the good minis¬ 
ters were destroyed by cliques and the Sang dynasty moved to the 
south of China. 

When the Mongol dynasty (A. D. 1260-1368) arose, it believed in 
and employed Confucian methods, and all under heaven was in order. 
In the time of Jen Chung the names of the philosophers, Chow and 
Cheng (of the Sung dynasty), were placed in the Confucian temples to 
be sacrificed to. They carried out the system of examinations and 
sent commissioners to travel throughout the land to inquire into the 
sufferings of the people. 

The empress served the emperor dowager with filial piety and 
treated all his relations with honor, and he may be called one of our 
noble rulers, but the death of Shunti was owing to his passion for pleas¬ 
ure. He practiced the methods of western priests (Buddhists) to reg¬ 
ulate the health and had no heart for matters of state. 

When the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (A. D. 1368-1644) 
arose and reformed the religion and ritual of the empire, he called it 
the great, peaceful dynasty. The pity was that he selected Buddhist 
priests to attend on the princes of the empire, and the priest Tao Yen 
corrupted the Pekin prince, and a rebellious spirit sprung up, which 
was a great mistake. Then Yen Tsung, too, employed Yen Sung, who 
only occupied himself in worship. Hi Tsung employed Ni Ngan, 
who defamed the loyal and the good, and the dynasty failed. These 
are the evidences of the value of Confucianism in every age. 

But in our present dynasty worship and religion have been wisely 
regulated, and the government is in fine order; noble ministers and 
able officers have followed in succession down all these centuries. 

That is what has caused Confucianism to be transmitted from the 
oldest times till now, and wherein it constitutes its superiority to other 
religions is that it does not encourage mysteries and strange things or 
marvels. It is impartial and upright. It is a doctrine of great im¬ 
partiality and strict uprightness, which one may body forth iii one’s 
person and carry out with vigor in one’s life; therefore, we say, when 
the sun and moon come forth (as in Confucianism), then the light of 
candles can be dispensed with. 


18 


\ 





4 


Tombs in the Valley of Jehosaphat, Jerusalem 










XII. 

MOHAMMEDANISM. 






Mohammedanism. 


ygi 



HE religion founded by Mohammed, the 
so-called Prophet of Arabia. He was born 
at Mecca, of good family, August 20, 570; 
but, while an infant, lost his father, Abdallah, 
and, at the age of six, his mother, Amina. 
When a child he had a fit, probably epileptic. 
At the age of twenty-five he married Khadijah, 
a widow of forty, the first of his many wives, 
and was faithful to her while she lived. At the 
age of forty he often retired to a cave at the 
foot of Mount Hira for religious meditation. 
Three years later he began to proclaim his 
views, and, after a time, claimed to be a prophet. 
Among his early converts were his wife, Khad¬ 
ijah, Ali, his cousin, then a boy of fourteen, 
afterward his adopted son and his son-in-law, 
and Abu Bakr, or Abubeker, his friend. On June 20, 622, he had 
to flee from Mecca to Medina. This date is the Moslem era of the 
Hegira. At Mecca he had been an enthusiast; at Medina he became 
a fanatic. On January 13, 624, at the head of 300 followers he defeated 
950 of the Meccans. The victory was considered miraculous, and 
encouraged him in future to propagate his faith by the sword, and 
he was so successful that at his death (June 8, 632) he was virtual 
sovereign of Arabia. During the Caliphates of his immediate success¬ 
ors Abubeker (632-634) and Omar (634-646), the Arabs, or Saracens, 
conquered Syria, Persia, and Egypt, and established the new faith. 
Othman reigned next (644-655). Then the Arabs elected Ali, Moham¬ 
med’s son-in-law, strangely passed over till now; the Syrians chose 
Moaviah, son of Abu Sofian, an old enemy of the prophet. Civil war 
resulted, and the sects of the Sunnis and Shiahs arose. Ali was 
assassinated in 661, Hassan and Hosein, his sons, soon after perishing. 
In 710 Tarik landed in Spain, the straits where he had passed and 
the adjacent rock being ever afterward called Gibraltar. In 732 
Charles Martel ( = the Hammer) defeated the Arab Abderrahman 
at Poictiers, saving Western Europe. The Saracen capitals had been 
successively at Medina, at Cafa, at Damascus, and at Bagdad; their 
dynasties were the Ommeyades, Abbasides, etc. About the middle 
of the eighth century the Saracen Empire in the East began to be 

277 




278 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


broken down by the Turks, then a savage Tartar tribe, which after¬ 
ward embraced Mohammedanism, and in 1453 took Constantinople, 
terminating the Greek or Eastern Empire. Since the sixteenth century 
their power has been less dreaded. The Mohammedans of the world 
have been estimated at 250 millions, of whom 50 millions are in India, 
40 millions directly under British rule, and 10 millions in allied or 
tributary states. The Koran (=that which is read or recited) is their 
sacred book and their code of law. Their faith is called Islam 
( = surrender of the will to God). Five duties are incumbent on 
the faithful Mohammedan: A confession of faith that there is but one 
God, and that Mohammed is his prophet; prayer, fasting, almsgiving, 
and a pilgrimage to Mecca. Friday is their Sabbath and day of special 
worship. Raising the nations which have embraced it to a higher 
creed than their old idolatry, Islam has so stereotyped them as to ren¬ 
der all further changes intensely difficult. No other faith offers so stub¬ 
born a resistance to the spread of Christianity .—American Encyclo¬ 
pedic Dictionary. 

The career of Mohammed is one of the most remarkable in human 
annals. One of his best biographers accurately says: 

“Illiterate himself, scarcely able to read or write, he was yet the 
author of a book which is a poem, a code of laws, a Book of Common 
Prayer, and a Bible in one, and is reverenced to this day by a sixth of 
the whole human race as a miracle of style, of wisdom, and of truth. 
It was the one miracle claimed by Mohammed—his‘standing miracle’ 
he called it; and indeed a miracle it is.” 

And of the Koran, the Mohammedan Bible: 

“We have in it a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its pres¬ 
ervation, and in the chaos of its contents; but on the authenticity of 
which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt. There, if in 
any book, we have a mirror of one of the master-spirits of the world; 
often inartistic, incoherent, self-contradictory, dull, but impregnated 
with a few grand ideas which stand out from the whole; a mind 
seething with the inspiration pent within it, ‘ intoxicated with God,’ 
but full of human weaknesses, from which he never pretended to be 
free.” 

The English-Roman Catholic writer, W. S. Lilly, says of Moham¬ 
med, in “The Claims of Christianity:” 

“The Divine Unity, making, upholding, governing, perfecting 
all things, was the rock on which he built. He felt that the mysteries 
encompassing us are great, are ineffable; but that, however dark to 
us, they are not darkness in themselves; that at the heart of exist¬ 
ence is Mind, Personality, Law. This is the faith stamped upon every 
line of the Ku’ran, inspiring its finest poetry, and piercing through its 
most turgid rhapsodies, in virtue of which it has been for thirteen 
centuries a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, guiding 
through the wilderness of life countless millions of our race. Such 
was Mohammed’s theism.” 

There is one God alone, God the Eternal; 

Hebegetteth not, and He is not begotten, 

And there is none like unto Him. —The Koran, (vii) 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


279 


Mutazilite.—A rationalistic Mohammedan sect, founded in the 
first century of the Hegira by Wasil ben Ata. They rejected certain 
opinions held by the ordinary Mussulmans regarding God, which they 
consider to be inconsistent with His justice and holiness, etc., rejected 
predestination, and admitted a purgatory. The Koran was allegorized 
to prevent its coming into collision with science or cramping the devel¬ 
opment of society. The Caliph al Mamun, son of Harun al Raschid 
(A. D. 813 to 833), embraced the Mutazilite faith. He encouraged 
learned men of all persuasions at his court at Bagdad, and gave an 
impulse, felt powerfully, even in Christendom, to science. This bril¬ 
liant rationalistic period of Mohammedanism lasted about fifty years, 
when the old orthodoxy came back with its accompanying stagnation 
of thought. (Sir Wm. Muir: The Early Caliphate (1883), p. 458, etc.) 

Druse.—A politico-religious sect of Mohammedan origin, but 
deemed by orthodox Moslems heretical. El-Hakim Biamr-Allah, the 
sixth Fatimite Caliph of Egypt, a cruel and fanatical man, who lived 
in the eleventh century, proclaimed himself an incarnation of God, and 
established a secret society. When walking in the vicinity of Cairo, 
his capital, he disappeared from his subjects’ view, the most natural 
explanation being that he was assassinated and his body hidden 
somewhere. His followers believed in his return to this earth to 
reign over it, and propagated their faith in the adjacent lands. The 
Druses believe in the unity of God, who they think was mani¬ 
fested in the person of several individuals, the last of them Hakim. 
They believe in the constant existence of five superior spiritual 
ministers, the greatest of them being Hamzah and Jesus, and hold the 
transmigration of souls. They are divided into the ’Okkal or Initiated, 
and the Juhhal or Ignorant. Their day of worship is Thursday. 
Ethnologically, they are Arabs who came from the eastern parts of 
Syria and settled in Lebanon and Antilebanon in the eleventh century. 
Their territory on the Lebanon is south of the Maronites. They extend 
thence to the Hauran and to Damascus. In i860 they attacked the 
Maronites, about twelve thousand of whom they cruelly massacred, 
not sparing even women or male children in their fury. This outburst 
was fast passing into a general rise of the Mohammedans on the 
Christians of Syria, when the arrival of Turkish and French troops, in 
August and September, i860, and the execution of 167 Druses, more 
deeply criminal than others, restored at least the semblance of tran¬ 
quillity. No similar outbreak has since occurred. 

Shafiites.—The followers of Mohammed Ibn Idris al Shafei, 
born in Syria, Hegira 150 (A. D. 767). He wrote three works on the 
fundamental principles of Islam, and became the founder of the Shafi¬ 
ites, one of the four sects considered orthodox. It still exists in 
Arabia, India, etc. 

Sefatians.—A sect of Mohammedans who held that God possessed 
eternal attributes, and that there was no difference between the “ essen¬ 
tial attributes” and the “attributes of operation.” To these they, in 
process of time, added a third category, “ declarative attributes,” by 




280 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


which they understood anthropomorphic expressions, such as God’s 
eyes, His arms, His hands, etc. They were opposed to the Mutazilites. 
They ultimately split into several sects, some of which still exist. 

Sunnites, Sonnites.—One of the two great Mohammedan parties 
or sects, divided into four minor sects, the Hanefites, the Malekites, 
the Shafiites, and the Hanbalites. They consider the Sunna binding, 
placing it on the same footing as to authority with the Koran. They 
wear white turbans, and are deemed orthodox. They regard Abu 
Bekr, Omar, and Osman as having been true caliphs. The Turks, the 
Arabs, and the majority of the Indian Mohammedans are Sunnites. 

Wahabi, Wahabee, (Named after Abdul Wahhab.)—A sect 
founded by Abdul Wahhab, born toward the end of the seventeenth 
century, near Der’aiyeh, the capital of Nejd, in Arabia. During the 
Saracen period the Mohammedan sacred places were in Arab custody. 
When the Saracen was succeeded by the Turkish power, they passed 
over into Turkish keeping. It is obligatory on every Mussulman who 
can afford the expense, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once 
in his life. The Arabs were greatly scandalized by the moral laxity 
of some of the pilgrims, and it became painfully apparent that even 
the best of them had largely departed from the purity of the faith, 
according divine honors to Mohammed, elevating tradition to the 
same level as revealed scripture, and quietly ignoring any precept of 
the Koran which required self-denial for its performance. Abdul 
Wahhab felt it a duty to make a determined effort to restore Moham¬ 
medanism to its pristine purity, and the most earnest Moslems gradu¬ 
ally became his followers. Converting to his views Mohammed Ibu 
Saud, the powerful Sheikh of Der’aiyeh, whose daughter he married, 
he induced his father-in-law to draw the sword for the establishment 
of a pure Mohammedan theocracy. The Bedouins flocked to his 
standard; the towns of Arabia, less inclined to adopt the new faith, 
had to be conquered. 

In 1797 they pillaged the town and tomb of Husein; in 1803 
they captured Mecca, and in 1804 Medina, where they plundered 
the tomb of Mohammed himself. The Wahabee movement is not 
now confined to Arabia; it has spread throughout the Mohammedan 
world, and though quiescent at present, still possesses vigorous life, 
and will doubtless again from time to time break forth. Many adher¬ 
ents of the sect are believed to exist in India, Patna being considered 
one of their strongholds. 






The jnfluence of S oc ial Condition. 

By MOHAMMED ALEXANDER RUSSELL WEBB, of New York. 



M NE £ rea t es t mistakes the follower 

of any religion can make is to form and 
express a positive opinion of the moral 
effects of another religious system from 
the general conduct of those who profess 
to follow it, and, at the same time, to ig¬ 
nore the faults and weaknesses of those 
who are within the fold of his own faith. 
It is unfortunate, perhaps, that among 
the masses of believers religious preju¬ 
dice is so strong as to prevent the exer¬ 
cise of a calm and just discrimination in 
the examination of an opposing creed. 

It would be neither just nor truthful to as¬ 
sert that every man who lives in an American city, 
town or village, is a Christian and represents in his acts and words the 
natural effects of Christian teachings. Nor is it fair to judge the 
Islamic system in a similar manner, and yet I regret to say that it is 
quite generally done in Europe and in America. There are in Asia 
today many thousands of people who call themselves Mussulmans and 
yet who have a no more truthful conception of the character and teach¬ 
ings of Mohammed than they have of the habits* of the man in the 
moon. If one or a dozen of these should commit an act of brutal in¬ 
tolerance or fanaticism, would it be just to say that it was due to the 
meritable tendencies of their religion? 

There are several reasons why Islam and the character of its fol¬ 
lowers are so little understood in Europe and America, and one of 
these is that when a man adopts, or says lie adopts, Islam, he becomes 
known as a Mussulman and his nationality becomes merged in his re¬ 
ligion. As soon as a Hindu embraces Islam his character disappears. 

If a Mohammedan, Turk, Egyptian, Syrian or African commits a 
crime the newspaper reports do not tell us that it was committed by a 
Turk, an Egyptian, a Syrian or an African, but by a Mohammedan. 
If an Irishman, an Italian, a Spaniard or a German commits a crime in 
the United States we do not say that it was committed by a Catholic, 

281 




4 



Mahommed Alexander Russell Webb, New York. 












THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


283 


a Methodist or a Baptist, nor even a Christian; we designate the man 
by his nationality. There are thousands of men in the prisons of our 
country whose religious belief, if they have any, is rarely or never 
referred to. We do not refer to them as Christians, simply because their 
parents attended a Christian church, or they themselves had a church 
membership at some time in the remote past. But, just as soon as a 
native of the East is arrested for a crime or misdemeanor, he is reg¬ 
istered as a representative of the religion his parents followed or 
which he has adopted. 

We should only judge of the inherent tendencies of a religious 
system by observing carefully and without prejudice its general effects 
upon the character and habits of those who are intelligent enough to 
understand its basic principles, and who publicly profess to teach or 
follow it. If we find that their lives are clean and pure and full of 
love and charity, we may fairly say that their religion is good. If we 
find them given to hypocrisy, dishonesty, uncharitableness and intol¬ 
erance, we may safely infer that there is something wrong with the 
system they profess. 

In forming our estimate of a religion we should also calmly 
analyze its fundamentals and consider the racial and climatic influences 
that surround its followers as well as their national habits and customs. 

I take it that we all desire to know the truth, and that we are will¬ 
ing to have our attention called to the fact if we make a mistake 
in our estimate of our neighbor’s religion. That was the sentiment 
that possessed me ten years ago, when I began the study of the Oriental 
religions, and I hope that it largely influences the minds of all who 
hear me today. 

Another of the most potent reasons for the unfavorable opinion 
of Islam and its professed followers which prevails in America and 
Europe today, is the disposition of the people of the West to judge 
the people of the East by our western standard of civilization. We 
of the West believe that our wonderful progress in the arts and sci¬ 
ences, and the perfection of those means by which our physical com-, 
fort and pleasure are secured, give us just cause to feel superior to 
those who do not bask in the sunshine of our nineteenth century civil¬ 
ization. In a general way, and with some few exceptions, perhaps, we 
consider our social system admirable, and when we find that many Mo¬ 
hammedans, Buddhists, Hindus, and other eastern people do not join 
with us in this opinion, we console ourselves with the belief that it is 
because they are heathen and incapable of recognizing and appreciat¬ 
ing a good thing when they see it. It would, undoubtedly, surprise 
some of my hearers to know what many of the more intelligent Mus¬ 
sulmans and Hindus of India think of this civilization of ours of which 
we are so proud. 

There is a class of Mussulmans and Hindus and Buddhists in the 
East, with whom the western missionaries rarely come in contact, and 
when they do there is no discussion of religious doctrines, because 
these “heathen” have learned by experience that it is worse than a 


284 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


waste of time to argue over such matters. But generally they are men 
of profoundlearning,whospeakEnglishasfluently as they do the Orien¬ 
tal tongues, and who are well versed in all the known systems of relig¬ 
ion and philosophy. It will probably surprise many people here to 
know that nearly all the more intelligent and highly educated Mussul¬ 
mans of India are quite as well informed as to the history and doc¬ 
trines of the other religious, systems as they are concerning their 
own. 

We Mussulmans firmly believe that the teachings of Moses, Abra¬ 
ham, Jesus and Mohammed were substantially the same; that the fol¬ 
lowers of each truly inspired prophet have always corrupted and 
added, more or less, to the system he taught, and have drifted into 
materialistic forms and ceremonies; that the true spirit has often been 
sacrificed to what may, perhaps, be called the weak conceptions of 
fallible humanity. 

In order to realize the influence of Islam upon social conditions, 
and to comprehend and appreciate the teachings of Mohammed, his 
whole life and apparent motives must be inspected and analyzed care¬ 
fully and without prejudice. In view of the very unsatisfactory and 
contradictory nature of much that has been written in English con¬ 
cerning him, we must learn to read between the lines of so-called his¬ 
tory. When we have done this we will find that the ethics he taught 
are identical with those of every other prominent religious system. 
That is to say, he presented the very highest standard of morality, 
established a system of worship calculated to produce the best results 
among all classes of his followers, and made aspiration to God the 
paramount purpose of life. 

Like every other truly inspired teacher, he showed that there were 
two aspects or divisions of the spiritual knowledge he had acquired— 
one for the masses who were so thoroughly occupied with the affairs 
of this world that they had only a very small portion of their time to 
devote to religion, and the other for those who were capable of com¬ 
prehending the higher spiritual truths and realize that it was better to 
lay up treasures for the life to come than to enjoy the pleasures of this 
world. But his purpose, clearly, was to secure the most perfect moral 
results by methods applicable to all kinds and conditions of humanity. 

In analyzing the sayings of the prophet, aside from the Ko¬ 
ran, we should always bear in mind the social conditions prevalent 
among the Arabs at the time he taught, as well as the general charac¬ 
ter of the people. Presuming that Mohammed was truly inspired by 
the Supreme Spirit, it is quite reasonable to suppose that he used quite 
different methods of bringing the truth to the attention of the Arabs 
twelve hundred years ago than he would follow before an audience of 
intelligent, educated people, such as sits before me, in this nineteenth 
century. 

Before proceeding further, I desire to explain that, in order to 
show clearly the influence of Islam upon social conditions, it will be 
necessary to make some comparisons between the habits and customs 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


285 


in Mussulman communities and in the cities and towns of Europe and 
America, where Christianity is the prevailing religion. In doing this 
I have no intention to reflect upon the latter nor give offense to any 
of its followers. My purpose is to show, as lucidly and distinctly as 
possible, a side of the Islamic faith, which is quite familiar to my fellow 
countrymen and which is the life of the Moslem social fabric. 

There are a number of objections to Islam raised by western 
people which I would like to reply to fully, but the very limited 
time allotted to me prevents my doing so. I can only enter a general 
denial and trust to time and the earnest, honest efforts of some 
of those who hear me to prove the truth of what I say. Nearly, if not 
quite all, the objections I refer to have their birth and growth in igno¬ 
rance of the vital principles of Islam. 

The chief objection and the first one generally made is polygamy. 
It is quite generally believed that polygamy and the Purdah, or ex¬ 
clusion of females, is a part of the Islamic system. This is not true. 
There is only one verse in the Koran which can possibly be distorted 
into an excuse for polygamy and that is, practically, a prohibition of 
it. Only the other day I read a communication in a church newspaper, 
written by a well-known clergyman who said that the Koran required 
the sultan of Turkey to take a new wife every year. There is no such 
requirement in the Koran, and what surprised me most was that such 
an intelligent, well educated man as the writer should make that 
statement. I am charitable enough to admit that he made it through 
ignorance. I never met but two Mussulmans in my life who had more 
than one wife. There is nothing in the sayings of the prophet nor in 
the Koran warranting or permitting the Purdah. During the life of 
the prophet and the early caliphates, the Arabian women went abroad 
freely, and, what is more were honored, respected and fully protected 
in the exercise of their rights and privileges. 

Islam has been called “The religion of the sword,” and there are 
thousands of good people in America and Europe who really believe 
that Mohammed went into battle with the sword in one hand and the 
Koran in the other. This is rather a singular charge for Christian 
writers to make; but they do make it and very inconsistently and un¬ 
justly, too. 

The truth is that the prophet never encouraged nor consented 
to the propagation of Islam by force, and the Koran plainly forbids 
it. It says: 

“Let there be no forcing in religion; the right way has been made 
clearly distinguishable from the wrong one. If the Lord had pleased, 
all who are on the earth would have believed together; and wilt Thou 
force men to be believers? ” 

And in the second Sura, 258th verse, it says: 

“Let there be no compulsion in religion. Now is the right way 
made distinct from error; whoever, therefore, denieth Taghoot (liter¬ 
ally error) and believeth in God, hath taken hold on a strong handle 
that hath no flaw. And God is He who heareth, knoweth.” 


286 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Our prophet himself was as thoroughly non-aggressive and peace- 
loving as the typical Shaker, and, while he realized that a policy of 
perfect non-resistance would speedily have resulted in the murder of 
himself and every Mussulman in Arabia, he urged his followers to 
avoid, as far as possible, violent collisions with the unbelievers, and 
not to fight unless it was necessary in order to protect their lives. It 
can be shown, too, that he never in his life participated in a battle and 
never had a sword in his hand for the purpose of killing or maiming a 
human being. 

It has been charged that slavery is a part of the Islamic system in 
the face of the fact that Mohammed discouraged it, and the Koran for¬ 
bids it, making the liberation of a slave one of the most meritorious 
acts a person can perform. But, in weighing the evidence bearing 
upon this subject, we should never lose sight of the social and political 
conditions prevalent in Arabia at the time the prophet lived and the 
Koran was compiled. 

It has also been said that Mohammed and the Koran denied a soul 
to woman and ranked her with the animals. The Koran places her on 
a perfect and complete equality with man, and the prophet’s teachings 
often place her in a position superior to the males in some respects. 
Let me read you one passage from the Koran bearing upon the sub¬ 
ject. It is the thirty-fifth verse of the thirty-third Sura. 

“Truly the men who resign themselves to God (Moslems), and 
the women who resign themselves; the believing men, and the 
believing women; the devout men, and the devout women; the men of 
truth, and the women of truth; the patient men, and the patient women; 
the humble men, and the humble women; the men who give alms, 
and the women who give alms; the men who fast, and the women who 
fast; the chaste men, and the chaste women, the men and women who 
oft remember God, for them hath God prepared forgiveness and a 
rich recompense.” 

Could anything have been written to emphasize more forcibly the 
perfect equality of the sexes before God? The property rights which 
American women have enjoyed for only a few years have been enjoyed 
by Mohammedan women for twelve hundred years; and today there is 
no class of women in the world whose rights are so completely pro¬ 
tected as those of the Mussulman communities. 

And now, having endeavored to dispel some of the false ideas 
concerning Islam, which have been current in this country, let me 
show you briefly what it really is and what its natural effects are upon 
social conditions. Stated in the briefest manner possible, the Islamic 
system requires belief in the unity of God and in the inspiration of 
Mohammed. Its pillars of practice are physical and mental cleanliness, 
prayer, fasting, fraternity, alms-giving and pilgrimage. There is noth¬ 
ing in it that tends to immorality, social degredation, superstition 
or fanaticism. On the contrary, it leads on to all that is purest and 
noblest in the human character; and any professed Mussulman who 
is unclean in his person or habits, or is cruel, untruthful, dishonest, 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


287 


irreverent, or fanatical, fails utterly to grasp the meaning of the 
religion he professes. 

But there is something more in the system than the mere teaching 
of morality and personal purity. It is thoroughly practical, and the 
results, which are plainly apparent among the more intelligent Mos¬ 
lems, show how well the prophet understood human nature. It will 
not produce the kind of civilization that we Americans seem to admire 
so much, but it will make a man sober, honest and truthful, and will 
make him love his God with all his heart and all his mind, and his ' 
neighbor as himself. 

Every Mussulman who has not become demoralized by contact 
with British civilization prays five times a day, not whenever he hap¬ 
pens to feel like it, but at fixed periods. His prayer is not a servile, 
cringeing petition for some materialbenefit, but a hymn of praise to the 
one incomprehensible, unknowable God, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, 
Omnipresent Ruler of the universe. He does not believe that by argu¬ 
ment and entreaty he can sway the judgment and change the plans of 
God, but with all the force of his soul he tries to soar upward in spirit 
to where he can gain strength, to be pure and good and holy and 
worthy of the happiness of the future life. His purpose is to rise 
above the selfish pleasures of earth and strengthen his spirit wings for 
a lofty flight when he is at last released from the body. 

Before every prayer he is required* to wash his face, nostrils, 
mouth, hands and feet, and he does it. During youth he acquires the 
habit of washing himself five times a day, and this habit clings to him 
through life and keeps him physically clean. He comes in touch with 
his religion five times a day in a manner which produces results pro¬ 
portionate to the intelligence and spiritual development of the man. 
His religion is not a thing apart from his daily life, to be put on once 
a week and thrown aside when it threatens to interfere with his busi¬ 
ness or pleasure. It is a fixed and inseparcble part of his existence 
and exerts a direct and potent influence on his every thought and act. 
Is it to be wondered at that his idea of civilization differs from that o f 
the West; that it is less active and progressive, less grand and impos 
ing and dazzling and noisy? 

I will confess that when I went to live among the intelligent Mus¬ 
sulmans I was astonished beyond measure at the social conditions I 
encountered. I had acquired the idea that prevails generally in this 
country and Europe, and was prepared to find the professed followers 
of Islam selfish, treacherous, untruthful, intolerant, sensual and fanati¬ 
cal. I was very agreeably disappointed. I saw the practical results 
of Islam manifested in honesty, truthfulness, sobriety, tolerance, gen¬ 
tleness and a degree of true brotherly love that was a surprise to me. 
The evils that we Americans complain of in our social system- 
drunkenness, prostitution, marital infidelity and cold selfishness—were 
almost entirely absent. 

It is a significant fact that only Mussulmans who drink whisky 
and gamble are those who wear European clothing and imitate the 


1 



Mosque of Kaid Bey 



















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


289 


appearance and habits of the Englishmen. I have never seen a 
drunken Mussulman, nor one who carried the odor of whisky or beer 
about with him. But I have heard that some of those who have be¬ 
come Anglicized and have broken away, from the Moslem dress and 
customs actually do drink beer and whisky and smoke cigarettes. 

I have been in mosques where from five hundred to three thousand 
Mussulmans were gathered to pray, and at the conclusion of the prayer 
I was hemmed in by a hundred of them who were eager to shake my 
hand and call me their brother. But I never detected those disagree¬ 
able odors which suggest the need of extended facilities for bathing. 
I have repeatedly called this fact to mind while riding on the elevated 
railways in New York and in two or three public assemblages in 
London. 

Prostitution and marital infidelity, with scandalous newspaper re¬ 
ports of divorce proceedings, are quite impossible in a Mussulman 
community where European influences have no foothold. A woman 
toiling over a washtub to support a drunken husband and several chil¬ 
dren, and a poor widow with her little ones turned into the streets for 
non-payment of rent are episodes that never occur where Islamic laws 
and customs prevail. Woman takes her place as man’s honored and 
respected companion and helpmate and is the mistress of her home 
whenever she is disposed to occupy that position. Her rights are 
accorded to her freely. 

It is true that she does not attend public balls and receptions, 
wearing a dress that some people might consider immodest, and waste 
her health and jeopardize her marital happiness in the enervating 
dance, nor does her husband do so. She does not go to the theater, 
the circus, the races, nor the public gatherings in search of amusement, 
but finds her pleasure and recreation at home in the pure atmosphere 
of her husband’s and children’s love and the peaceful, refining occupa¬ 
tions of domestic life. Both she and her husband, as well as their chil¬ 
dren, are taught and believe that it is better to retire at nine, just after the 
prayer of the day, and arise before daybreak and say the morning 
prayer just as the first rays of the sun are gilding the eastern horizon. 

Another feature of the Islamic social life that has impressed me 
is the utter absence of practical joking, or what is popularly known as 
“guying.” There is little or no sarcasm, bitter irony, cruel wit among 
the Mussulmans calculated to cause their fellows chagrin, shame or an¬ 
noyance, wounding the heart and breaking that bond of loving frater¬ 
nity which should subsist between men. The almost universal disposi¬ 
tion seems to be to cultivate unselfishness and patience and to place as 
little value as possible upon the things of this world. 

In the household of the true Mussulman there is no vain show, ncj 
labored attempt to follow servilely the fashions, including furniture 
and ornaments, in vogue in London and Paris. Plainness and frugality 
are apparent everywhere, the idea being that it is far better to culti¬ 
vate the spiritual side of our nature than to waste our time and money 
trying to keep up appearances that we hope will cause our neighbors 

19 


290 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

to think that we have more money than we really have and are more 
aesthetic in our tastes than we really are. 

“ But,” someone may say, “ what about the story that a Mussulman 
believes that he will go directly to paradise if he dies while trying to 
kill a Christian? ” 

This is one of the numerous falsehoods invented by enemies of the 
truth to injure as peaceful and non-aggressive a class of people as the 
world has ever seen. A traveler who has visited nearly all the 
Mohammedan countries said to me last week: “ I would rather 
be alone in the dark woods and miles away from a town with 
one hundred Mussulmans than to walk half-a-dozen blocks in the 
slums of an English or American city after dark.” 

He also told me that while he was on a steamer at Constantinople, 
he gave a Turkish boatman a lira, or about five dollars, to buy him 
some fruit and cigarettes. The English passengers laughed at his 
credulity and assured him that he would never see his lira again. But 
just as the anchor was being raised the boatman returned bringing 
with him the fruit and cigarettes and the exact change. 

In April last a lady at the Desbrosses street ferry, in New York, 
gave her cloak to a young man to hold while she purchased her ticket. 
She has not seen it since. 

A Mussulman, if he is hungry and has no lodging place, may walk 
into the house of a brother Mussulman and be sure of a cordial, hospi¬ 
tal welcome. He will be given a seat at the frugal meal and a place 
where he can spread his sleeping mat. One of the best of Islamic 
social customs is hospitality. Many Mussulmans are glad to have the 
opportunity to give a home and food to a poor brother, believing that 
God has thus favored them with the means of making themselves 
more worthy to inherit paradise. 

The greeting, “ Assalam Aleikum ” (Peace be with thee), and 
the response, “Aleikum Salaam” (With thee be peace), have a true 
fraternal sound in them, calculated to arouse the love and respect of 
anyone who hears them. In the slums of our American cities this 
summer there were hundreds of hungry, homeless people, while hun¬ 
dreds of houses in the fashionable streets were closed and empty and 
their owners were living luxuriantly at summer resorts. Such a state 
of affairs would be impossible in a purely Mussulman community. 

I have seen it asserted that, under the Islamic system, a high state 
of civilization is impossible. Stanley Lane-Poole writes as follows: 

“For nearly eight centuries under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain 
set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. 
Her fertile provinces, rendered doubly prolific by the industry and en¬ 
gineering skill of her conquerors, bore fruit in a hundred fold. Cities 
innumerable sprang up in the rich valleys of the Guadalquivir and 
Guadiana, whose names, and names only, still commemorate the van¬ 
quished glories of their past. Art, literature and science prospered as 
they then prospered no where else in Europe. Students flocked from 
France and Germany and England to drink from the fountains of learn- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


291 


ing which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and 
doctors of Andalusia were in the van of science; women were encour¬ 
aged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady doctor was not 
unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy 
and botany, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be mastered in 
Spain and in Spain alone. The practical work of the field, the scien¬ 
tific methods of irrigation, the arts of fortification and ship building, 
the highest and most elaborate products of the loom, the graver and 
the hammer, the potter’s wheel and the mason’s trowel were brought 
to perfection by Spanish lords. In the practice of war, no less than 
in the arts of peace, they long stood supreme. “Whatsoever makes a 
kingdom great and prosperous, whatsoever tends to refinement and 
civilization, was found in Moslem Spain.” 

And what has become of this grand civilization, traces of which 
we still see in some of the Spanish cities, and the splendid architecture 
of the Mogul emperors of India? It is to be seen here in Chicago and 
in wherever there is a manifestation of materialistic progress and en¬ 
lightenment. 

So long as the pure teachings of the prophet were followed the 
Moslem development was pure and healthy, and much more stable 
and admirable than the gaudy materialism that finally developed and 
brought with it utter ruin. True civilization—a civilization based upon 
purity, virtue and fraternal love—is the kind of civilization that exists 
today among the better classes of Mussulmans, and brings with it a 
degree of contentment and happiness unknown amid the tumult of the 
western social system. 

The devout Mussulman, one who has arrived at an intelligent 
comprehension of the true teachings of the prophet, lives in his religion 
and makes it the paramount principle of hid existence. It is with him 
in all his goings and comings during the day, and he is never so 
completely occupied with his business or worldly affairs that he cannot 
turn his back upon them when the stated hour of prayer arrives and 
present his soul to God. His loves, his sorrows, his hopes, his fears are 
all immersed in it; it is his last thought when he lies down to sleep at 
night and the first to enter his mind at dawn, when the voice of the 
Muezzin sings out loudly and clearly from the minaret of the mosque, 
waking the soft echoes of the morn with its thrilling, solemn, majestic 
monotones, “ Come to prayer; prayer is better than sleep.” 



Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan 











The K oran. 

By Rev. George E. Post, D. D., of Beirut, Syria. 



EV. Geo. E. Post, D. D„ held up a copy of the 
Koran, and said: “I hold in my hand a 
book which is never touched by two hundred 
millions of the human race with unwashed 
hands, a book which is never carried below 
the waist, a book which is never laid upon 
the floor.” And Dr. Post then read without 
note or comment: 

In chapter lxvi. is said: “O Prophet.at¬ 
tack the infidel with arms.” And chapter ii 
says: ‘‘And fight for the religion of God 
against those who fight against you, and kill 
them wherever ye find them, and turn them 
out °f that whereof they have dispossessed 
r 'l you.” Also on page 25 it is written: “War is en¬ 
joined you against the infidels, but this is hateful 
unto you; yet perchance ye hate a thing which is 
better for you, and perchance ye love a thing which is worse for you.” 
Chapter xlviii.: “Say unto the Arabs of the desert who are left behind, 
ye shall be called forth against a mighty and a warlike nation, ye shall 
fight against them or they shall profess Islam.” And this may be 
translated, “until they profess Islam.” In chapter ix. it is said: “Now 
has God assisted you in many engagements, and particularly at the 
battle of Hunein, when ye pleased yourself in your multitude, but it 
was no manner of advantage to you and the earth was too straight for 
you, notwithstanding it was spacious; then did ye retreat and turn your 
backs. Afterward God sent down His security upon His apostle and 
upon the faithful, and sent down troops of angels which he saw not. 
Fight against them who believe not in God.” And many more of a 
similar character. 

I read in chapter iv. of the Koran: “And if ye fear that ye shall 
not act with equity toward orphans or the female sex, take in marriage 
of such other women as please you two, or three, or four, and not 
more.” In the same chapter I read: “Ye may with your substance 
provide wives for yourselves.” I read, however, that these were not 
r 293 



294 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


sufficient provisions for the Prophet, and the special revelation had to 
be made from heaven in these words: “O Prophet, we have allowed 
thee thy wives unto whom thou hast given thy dower, and also the 
slaves which thy right hand possesseth of the booty which God hath 
granted thee; and the daughters of thy uncles and the daughters of 
thy aunts, both on thy father’s side and thy mother’s side, who have 
fled with thee from Mecca, and any other believing woman, if she give 
herself unto the Prophet, in case the Prophet desires to take her to 
wife. This is a peculiar privilege granted unto thee above the rest 
of the true believers. We know what we have ordained them concern¬ 
ing their wives and their slaves which their right hands possess; lest 
it should be deemed a crime in thee to make use of the privilege 
granted thee, for God is merciful and gracious. It shall not be lawful 
for thee to take other women to wife hereafter, nor to exchange any 
of thy wives for them, although their beauty pleases thee, except the 
slaves whom thy right hand shall possess.” The commentators, who 
are all of them men who stand high in the Mohammedan world, as 
Origen, Chrysostom, and the other fathers of the church stand in the 
Christian world, differ as to the meaning of these words. Some think 
that Mohammed was thereby forbidden to take any more wives than 
nine, which number he had then, and is supposed to have been his 
stint, as four was that of other men; some imagine that after this 
.prohibition, though any of the wives he then had should die, or be 
divorced, he could not marry another in her room. Some think he 
was only forbidden from this time forward to marry any other woman 
than one of the four sorts mentioned in the passage quoted. 

There is one chapter which I dare not stand before you, sisters 
and mothers, and wives and daughters, and read to you. 1 have not 
the face to read it; nor would I like to read it even in a congregation 
of men. It is the sixty-fourth chapter of the Koran. You may read 
that chapter if you like yourselves, and you may read the comments 
of their great leaders and theologians, those men on whom they rely 
for the interpretation of the Koran. The chapter is called “Prohibi¬ 
tion.” If I were going to name it I should call it “High License.” 
Chapter xxiv. says: “And compel not your maid servants to prosti¬ 
tute their bodies.” In chapter xxxiii. it is revealed to the Prophet 
that he is an exception to this rule: “O Prophet, we have allowed thee 
thy wives, unto whom thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves 
which thy right hand possesseth of the booty which God had granted 
thee.” Now let us hear the Koran on the subject of divorce: “Ye may 
divorce your wives twice, but if the husband divorce her a third time 
she shall not be lawful for him again until she marry another husband. 
But if he also divorces her, it shall be no crime in them if they return 
to each other.” Chapter iv: “If ye be desirous of exchanging a wife for 
another wife and ye have already given one of them a talent, take not 
anything away therefrom.” In chapter iv. it is said: “Ye are also for- ♦ 
bidden to take to wife free women who are married except those 
women whom your right hands shall possess as slaves.” But this was 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


295 


not enough for the Prophet. There had to be a special revelation 
from God in order to justify him. The following passage was recorded 
on Mohammed’s wives asking for more sumptuous clothes and 
additional allowance for their expenses. The Prophet had no sooner 
received the request than he gave them their option either to continue 
with him or be divorced. In this passage God is supposed to be the 
speaker. He says: “O Prophet, say unto thy wives, if ye seek this 
present life and the pomps thereof, come, I will make a handsome pro¬ 
vision for you, and I will dismiss you with an honorable dismission, but 
if ye seek God and His apostles, and the life to come, verily God hath 
prepared for such of you as work righteousness a great reward.” 

Mohammed purchased a slave boy named Zeid, who was a win¬ 
some youth, and Mohammed loved him. The father of the boy, hear¬ 
ing where he was, came to Mecca with a great ransom in his hand, and 
he said to Mohammed: “Give me back my boy and take this gold.” 
Mohammed was magnanimous—he had many great and noble quali¬ 
ties, of which I would like to speak at another time—and Mohammed 
refused the ransom, and, turning to the boy, offered him his freedom. 
The boy, however, preferred to remain. He said to the Prophet: “ I 
will stay with you; you are my father.” After a time Mohammed had 
the boy swear a mighty oath at the Kaaba that he was his son, and 
thus he adopted him. This occurred before the proclamation of Islam. 
After the revelation of Islam, Mohammed gave the boy a beautiful 
girl named Zeinab to wife, Some years after their marriage Moham¬ 
med visited the house of Zeid in the latter’s absence. His eyes fell 
upon this young woman and he loved her. She told her husband of 
this, and he, from his devotion to his adopted father, offered to divorce 
her so that Mohammed might marry her. Mohammed at first recoiled 
from this. He said it was a scandal that would ruin him, but it is 
alleged that God gave him a revelation on which he took the wife of his 
own adopted son and made her his wife. The revelation is this: “But 
when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her and had resolved 
to divorce her we joined her in marriage unto thee; lest a crime 
should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of their 
adopted sons’ when they have determined the matter concerning them; 
and the command of God is to be performed. No crime is to be 
charged on the Prophet as to what God hath allowed him conformable 
to the ordinance of God with regard to those who preceded him (for 
the command of God is a determinate decree) who brought the mes¬ 
sages of God and feared Him, and feared none besides God; and God 
is a sufficient accountant. Mohammed is not the father of any man 
among you, but the apostle of God and the seal of the prophets/' 



Procession of the Holy Carpet to Mecca 



















Points of Qontact Petween Qhristianity 
and Mohammedanism. 

By GEORGE WASHBURN, D. D., President of Robert College, 

Constantinople. 


T is not my purpose to enter upon any defense 
or criticism of Mohammedanism, but simply to 
state, as impartially as possible, its points of 
contact and contrast with Christianity. 

The chief difficulty in such a statement 
arises from the fact that there are as many dif¬ 
ferent opinions on theological questions among 
Moslems as among Christians, and that it is 
impossible to present any summary of Moham¬ 
medan doctrine which will be accepted by all. 

The faith of Islam is based primarily upon 
the Koran, which is believed to have been 
delivered to the prophet at sundry times by 
the angel Gabriel, and upon the traditions 
reporting the life and words of the prophet; and 
secondarily, upon the opinions of certain distin¬ 
guished theologians of the second century of the hegira, especially, for 
the Sunnis, of the four Imams, Hanife, Shah, Malik and Hannbel. 

The Shiites, or followers of Aali, reject these last with many of 
the received traditions, and hold opinions which the great body of 
Moslems regard as heretical. In addition to the two-fold divisions of 
Sunniis and Shiites and of the sects of the four Imams, there are said 
to be several hundred minor sects. 

It is, in fact, very difficult for an honest inquirer to determine 
what is really essential to the faith. A distinguished Moslem states¬ 
man and scholar once assured me that nothing was essential beyond a 
belief in the existence and unity of God. And several years ago the 
Sheik-ul-Islam, the highest authority in Constantinople, in a letter to 
a German inquirer, states that whoever confesses that there is but one 
God, and that Mohammed is his prophet, is a true Moslem, although 
to be a good one it is necessary to observe the five points of confes- 

297 




298 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


sion, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage; but the difficulty 
about this apparently simple definition in that belief in Mohammed as 
the prophet of God involves a belief in all his teaching, and we come 
back at once to the question what that teaching was. 

The great majority of Mohammedans believe in the Koran, the 
traditions and the teaching of the school of Hanife, and we cannot do 
better than to take these doctrines and compare them with what are 
generally regarded as the essential principles of Christianity. 

With this explanation we may discuss the relations of Christianity 
and Mohammedanism as historical, dogmatic and practical. 

It would hardly be necessary to speak in this connection of the 
historical relations of Christianity and Islam if they had not seemed, 
to some distinguished writers, so important as to justify the statement 
that Mohammedanism is a form and outgrowth of Christianity; in 
fact, essentially a Christian sect. 

Carlyle, for example, says: “ Islam is definable as a confused form 
of Christianity.” And Draper calls it “The southern reformation, 
akin.to that in the north under Luther.” Dean Stanley and Dr. Doel- 
linger make similar statements. 

While there is a certain semblance of truth in their view, it seems 
to me not only misleading but essentially false. 

Neither Mohammed nor any of his earlier followers had ever been 
Christians, and there is no satisfactory evidence that up to the time of 
his announcing his prophetic mission he had interested himself at all 
in Christianity. No such theory is necessary to account for his mono¬ 
theism. The citizens of Mecca were mostly idolaters, but a few, known 
as Hanifs, were pure deists, and the doctrine of the unity of God was 
not unknown theoretically even by those who, in their idolatry, had 
practically abandoned it. The temple at Mecca was known as Beit 
ullah, the house of God. The name of the prophet’s father was 
Abdallah, the servant of God, and “by Allah” was a common oath 
among the people. 

The one God was nominally recognized, but in fact forgotten in 
the worship of the stars, of Lat and Ozza and Manah, and of the 360 
idols in the temple at Mecca. It was against this prevalent idolatry 
that Mohammed revolted, and he claimed that in so doing he had 
returned to the pure religion of Abraham. Still, Mohammedanism is 
no more a reformed Judaism than it is a form of Christianity. It 
was essentially a new religion. 

The Koran claimed to be a new and perfect revelation of the will 
of God, and from the time of the prophet’s death to this day no 
Moslem has appealed to the ancient traditions of Arabia or to the 
Jewish or Christian Scriptures as the ground of his faith. The Koran 
and the traditions are sufficient and final. I believe that every ortho¬ 
dox Moslem regards Islam as a separate, distinct, and absolutely 
exclusive religion; and there is nothing to be gained by calling it a 
form of Christianity. But, after having set aside this unfounded state¬ 
ment, and fully acknowledged the independent origin of Islam, there is 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


299 


still an historical relationship between it and Christianity which 
demands our attention 

The prophet recognized the Christian and Jewish Scriptures as 
the word of God, although it cannot be proved that he had ever 
read them. They are mentioned 131 times in the Koran, but there 
is only one quotation from the Old Testament, and one from the 
New. The historical parts of the Koran correspond with the Talmud, 
and the writing current among the heretical Christian sects, such as 
the Protevangelium of James, the pseudo Matthew, and the Gospel 
of the Nativity of Mary, rather than with the Bible. His informa¬ 
tion was probably obtained verbally from his Jewish and Christian 
friends, who seem, in some cases, to have deceived him intentionally. 
He seems to have believed their statements, that his coming was 
foretold in the Scriptures, and to have hoped for some years that 
they would accept him as their promised leader. 

His confidence in the Christians was proved by his sending his 
persecuted followers to take refuge with the Christian king of Abys¬ 
sinia. He had visited Christian Syria, and, if tradition can be trusted, 
he had some intimate Christian friends. With the Jews he was on 
still more intimate terms during his last years at Mecca and the first 
at Medina. 

But in the end he attacked and destroyed the Jews and declared 
war against the Christians, making a distinction, however, in his treat¬ 
ment of idolaters and “the people of the Book,” allowing the latter, 
if they quietly submitted to his authority, to retain their religion on 
the condition of an annual payment of a tribute or ransom for their 
lives If, however, they resisted, the men were to be killed and the 
women and children sold as slaves (Koran, sura ix). In the next world 
Jews, Christians and idolaters are alike consigned to eternal punish¬ 
ment in hell. 

Some have supposed that a verse in the second sura of the Koran 
was intended to teach a more charitable doctrine. It reads: “Surely 
those who believe, whether Jews, Christians or Sabians, whoever be- 
lieveth in God and the last day, and doth that which is right, they 
shall have their reward with the Lord. No fear shall come upon them, 
neither shall they be grieved.” But Moslem commentators rightly 
understand this as only teaching that if Jews, Christians or Sabians 
become Moslems they will be saved, the phrase used being the com¬ 
mon one to express faith in Islam. 

In the third sura it is stated in so many words: “ Whoever fol- 
loweth any other religion than Islam it shall not be accepted of him, 
and at the last day he shall be of those that perish.” 

This is the orthodox doctrine; but it should be said that one meets 
with Moslems who take a more hopeful view of the ultimate fate of 
those who are sincere and honest followers of Christ. 

The question whether Mohammedanism has been in any way 
modified since the time of the prophet by its contact with Christianity 
I think every Moslem would answer in the negative. There is much 


300 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


to be said on the other side, as, for example, it must seem to a Chris¬ 
tian student that the offices and qualities assigned to the prophet by 
the traditions, which are not claimed for him in the Koran, must have 
been borrowed from the Christian teaching in regard to Christ; but 
we have not time to enter upon the discussion of this question. 

In comparing the dogmatic statements of Islam and Christianity 
we must confine ourselves as strictly as possible to what is generally 
acknowledged to be essential in each faith. To go beyond this would 
be to enter upon a sea of speculation almost without limits, from which 
we could hope to bring back but little of any value to our present dis¬ 
cussion. 

It has been formally decided by various fetvas that the Koran re¬ 
quires belief in seven principal doctrines, and the confession of faith 
is this: “I believe on God, on the Angels, on the Books, on the 
Prophets, on the Judgment day, on the eternal Decrees of God 
Almighty concerning both good and evil, and on the Resurrection after 
death.” 

There are many other things which a good Moslem is expected to 
believe, but these points are fundamental. Taking these essential 
dogmas one by one we shall find that they agree with Christian doc¬ 
trine in their general statement, although in their development there 
is a wide divergence of faith between the Christian and Moslem. 

First. The Doctrine of God This is stated by Omer Nessefi (A. 
D. 1142), as follows: 

“God is one and eternal. He lives, and is almighty. He knows all 
things, hears all things, sees all things. He is endowed with will and 
action He has neither form nor feature, neither bounds, limits nor 
numbers, neither parts, multiplications nor divisions, because He is 
neither body nor matter. He has neither beginning nor end. He is 
self-existent, without generation, dwelling or habitation. He is outside 
the empire of time, unequaled in His nature as in His attributes, which, 
without being foreign to His essence, do not constitute it.” 

The Westminster catechism says: 

“God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, 
power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. There is but one only, 
the living and true God.” 

It will be seen that these statements differ chiefly in that the 
Christian gives special prominence to the moral attributes of God, and 
it has often been said that the God of Islam is simply a God of almighty 
power, while the God of Christianity is a God of infinite love and per¬ 
fect holiness; but this is not a fair statement of truth. The ninety-nine 
names of God, which the good Moslem constantly repeats, assign these 
attributes to Him. The fourth name is “The Most Holy;” the twenty- 
ninth, “The Just;” the forty-sixth, “The All Loving;” the first and most 
common is “The Merciful,” and the moral attributes are often referred 
to in the Koran. In truth, there is no conceivable perfection which the 
Moslem would neglect to attribute to God. 

Their conception of Him is that of an absolute Oriental Monarch, 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


301 


and His unlimited power to do what He pleases makes entire submission 
to His will the first, most prominent duty. The name which they gave 
to their religion implies this. It is Islam, which means submission or 
resignation; but a king may be good or bad, wise or foolish, and the 
Moslem takes as much pains as the Christian to attribute to God all 
wisdom and all goodness. 

The essential difference in the Christian and Mohammedan con¬ 
ception of God lies in the fact that the Moslem does not think of this 
great King as having anything in common with His subjects, from 
whom He is infinitely removed. The idea of the incarnation of God 
in Christ is to them not only blasphemous but absurd and incompre¬ 
hensible; and the idea of fellowship with God, which is expressed in 
calling Him our Father, is altogether foreign to Mohammedan 
thought. God is not immanent in the world in the Christian sense, but 
apart from the world and infinitely removed from man. 

Second. The Doctrine of Decrees, or of the Sovereignty of God, 
is a fundamental principle of both Christianity and Islam. 

The Koran says: 

“God has from all eternity foreordained by an immutable decree all 
things whatsoever that come to pass, whether good or evil.” 

The Westminister catechism says: 

“The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the 
counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained 
whatever comes to pass.” 

It is plain that these two statements do not essentially differ, and 
the same controversies have arisen over this doctrine among Moham¬ 
medans as among Christians with the same differences of opinion. 

Omer Nessefi says: 

“Predestination refers not to the temporal, but to the spiritual state. 
Election and reprobation decide the final fate of the soul, but in tem¬ 
poral affairs man is free.” 

A Turkish confession of faith says: 

“Unbelief and wicked acts happen with the foreknowledge and will 
of God, but the effect of His predestination, written from eternity on 
the preserved tables, by His operation but not with His satisfaction. 
God foresees, wills, produces, loves all that is good, and does not love 
unbelief and sin, though He wills and effects it. If it be asked 
why God wills and effects what is evil and gives the devil power to 
tempt man, the answer is, He has His views of wisdom which it is not 
granted to us to know.” 

Many Christian theologians would accept this statement without 
criticism, but in general they have been careful to guard against the 
idea that God is in any way the efficient cause of sin, and they gener¬ 
ally give to man a wider area of freedom than the orthodox Moham¬ 
medans. 

It cannot be denied that this doctrine of the decrees of God has 
degenerated into fatalism more generally among Moslems than among 
Christians. I have never known a Mohammedan of any sect who was 


m 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


not more or less a fatalist, notwithstanding the fact that there have 
been Moslem theologians who have repudiated fatalism as vigorously 
as any Christians. 

In Christianity this doctrine has been offset by a different concep¬ 
tion of God, by a higher estimate of man, and by the whole scheme of 
redemption through faith in Christ. In Islam there is no such coun¬ 
teracting influence. 

Third. The other five doctrines we pass over with a single remark 
in regard to each. Both Moslems and Christians believe in the exist¬ 
ence of good and evil angels, and that God has revealed His will to 
man in certain inspired books, and both agree that the Hebrew and 
Christian Scriptures are such books. The Moslem, however, believes 
that they have been superseded by the Koran, which was brought 
down from God by the angel Gabriel. They believe that this is His 
eternal and uncreated word; that its divine character is proved by its 
poetic beauty; that it has a miraculous power over men apart from 
what it teaches, so that the mere hearing of it, without understanding 
it, may heal the sick or convert the infidel. Both Christians and Mos¬ 
lems believe that God has sent prophets and apostles into the world 
to teach men His will; both believe in the judgment day and the resur¬ 
rection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, and rewards and pun¬ 
ishments in the future life. 

It will be seen that in simple statement the seven positive doc¬ 
trines of Islam are in harmony with Christian dogma; but in their ex¬ 
position and development the New Testamentand the Koran part com¬ 
pany, and Christian and Moslem speculation evolve totally different 
conceptions, especially in regard to everything concerning the other 
world. It is in these expositions based upon the Koran ( c . g., suras, 
lvi, and lxxviii), and still more upon the traditions, that we find the 
most striking contrasts between Christianity and Mohammedanism; 
but it is not easy for a Christian to state them in a way to satisfy Mos¬ 
lems, and as we have no time to quote authorities we may pass them 
over. 

Fourth. The essential dogmatic difference between Christianity 
and Islam is in regard to the person, office and work of Jesus Christ. 
The Koran expressly denies the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, His 
death, and the whole doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement, 
and rejects the sacraments which He ordained. 

It accepts His miraculous birth, His miracles, His moral perfec¬ 
tion, and His mission as an inspired prophet or teacher. It declares 
that He did not die on the cross, but was taken up to heaven without 
death, while the Jews crucified one like Him in His place. It conse¬ 
quently denies His resurrection from the dead, but claims that He will 
come again to rule the world before the day of judgment. 

It says that He will Himself testify before God that He never 
claimed to be divine; this heresy originated with Paul. 

And at the same time the faith exalts Mohammed to very nearly 
the same position which Christ occupies in the Christian scheme. He 


303 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


is not divine, and consequently not an object of worship, but he was 
the first created being; God’s first and best beloved, the noblest of all 
creatures, the mediator between God and man, the greatest intercessor, 
the first to enter Paradise and the highest there. Although the Koran 
in many places speaks of him as a sinner in need of pardon (Ex., 
suras xxiii, xlvii, and xlviii), his absolute sinlessness is also an article 
of faith. 

The Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, is not mentioned 
in the Koran, and the Christian doctrine of His work of regeneration 
and sanctification seems to have been unknown to the prophet, who 
represents the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as teaching that it 
consists of God the Father, Mary the Mother, and Christ the Son. 
The promise of Christ in the Gospel of John to send the Paraclete, the 
Prophet applies to Himself, reading Parakletos as Periklytos, which 
might be rendered in Arabic as Ahmed, another form of the name 
Mohammed. 

We have, then, in Islam a specific and final rejection and repudia¬ 
tion of the Christian dogma of the Incarnation and the Trinity, and the 
substitution of Mohammed for Christ in most of his offices, but it 
should be noted in passing that, while this rejection grows out of a 
different conception of God, it has nothing in common with the scien¬ 
tific rationalistic unbelief of the present day. If it cannot conceive of 
God as incarnate in Jesus Christ, it is not from any doubt as to His 
personality or His miraculous interference in the affairs of this world, 
or the reality of the supernatural. These ideas are fundamental to the 
faith of every orthodox Mohammedan, and are taught everywhere in 
the Koran. 

There are nominal Mohammedans who are atheists, and others 
who are pantheists, of the Spinoza type. There are also some small 
sects who are rationalists, but after the fashion of old English deism 
rather than of the modern rationalism. The deistic rationalism is 
represented in that most interesting work of Justice Ameer Aali, “The 
Spirit of Islam.” He speaks of Mohammed as Xenophon did of 
Socrates, and he reveres Christ also, but he denies that there was any¬ 
thing supernatural in the inspiration or lives of either, and claims that 
Hanife and the other Imams corrupted Islam as he thinks Paul, the 
apostle, did Christianity; but this book does not represent Moham¬ 
medanism any more than Renan’s “Life of Jesus” represents Christian¬ 
ity. These small rationalistic sects are looked upon by all orthodox 
Moslems as heretics of the worst description. 

The practical and ethical relations of Islam to Christianity are even 
more interesting than the historical and dogmatic. The Moslem code 
of morals is much nearer the Christian than is generally supposed on 
either side, although it is really more Jewish than Christian. The 
truth is that we judge each other harshly and unfairly by those who 
do not live up to the demands of their religion, instead of comparing 
the pious Moslem with the consistent Christian. 

We cannot enter here into a technical statement of the philosoph- 


304 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


ical development of the principles of law and morality as they are 
given by the Imam Hanife and others. It would be incomprehensible 
without hours of explanation, and is really understood by but few 
Mohammedans, although the practical application of it is the substance 
of Mohammedan law. It is enough to say that the moral law is based 
upon the Koran, and the traditions of the life and sayings of the 
Prophet, enlarged by deductions and analogies. Whatever comes 
from these sources has the force and authority of a revealed law of God. 

The first practical duties inculcated in the religious code are: 
Confession of God and Mohammed, His prophet; Prayer at least five 
times a day; Fasting during the month of Ramazan, from dawn to sun¬ 
set; Alms to the annual amount of two and a half per cent on prop¬ 
erty; Pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime. A sixth duty, 
of equal importance, is taking part in sacred war, or war for religion, 
but some orthodox Moslems hold that this is not a perpetual obliga^ 
tion, and this seems to have been the opinion of Hanife. 

In addition to these primary duties of religion, the moral code, as 
given by Omer Nessefi, demands: Honesty in business; modesty or 
decency in behavior; fraternity between all Moslems; benevolence 
and kindness toward all creatures. It forbids gambling, music, the 
making or possessing of images, the drinking of intoxicating liquors, 
the taking of God’s name in vain, and all false oaths. And, in general, 
Omer Nessefi adds: “It is an indispensable obligation for every 
Moslem to practice virtue and avoid vice; i. e., all that is contrary to 
religion, law, humanity, good manners and the duties of society. He 
ought especially to guard against deception, lying, slander and abuse 
of his neighbor/' 

We may also add some specimen passages from the Koran: 

“God commands justice, benevolence and liberality. He forbids 
crime, injustice and calumny.” 

“Avoid sin in secret and in public. The wicked will receive the 
rewards of his deeds/’ 

“God promises His mercy and a brilliant recompense to those who 
add good works to their faith.” 

“He who commits iniquity will lose his soul.” 

“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces in prayer toward 
the east or the west; but righteousness is of him who believeth in God 
and the last day, and the angels and the prophets; who giveth money, 
for God’s sake, to his kindred and to orphans, and to the needy and 
the stranger, and to those who ask, and for the redemption of captives; 
who is constant in prayer, and giveth alms; and of those who perform 
their covenant, and who behave themselves patiently in adversity 
and hardships, and in time of violence. These are they who are true, 
and these are they who fear God.” 

So far, with one or two exceptions, these conceptions of the 
moral life are essentially the same as the Christian, although some 
distinctively Christian virtues, such as meekness and humility, are not 
emphasized. 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


30h 


Beyond this we have a moral code equally binding in theory, and 
equally important in practice, which is not at all Christian, but is es¬ 
sentially the morality of the Talmud in the extreme value which it 
attaches to outward observances, such as fasting, pilgrimages and cer¬ 
emonial rites. 

All the concerns of life and death are hedged about with prescribed 
ceremonies, which are not simple matters of propriety, but of morality 
and religion; and it is impossible for one who has not lived among 
Moslems to realize the extent and importance of this ceremonial law. 

In regard to polygamy, divorce and slavery, the morality of Islam 
is in direct contrast with that of Christianity, and as the principles of 
the faith, so far as determined by the Koran and the traditions, are 
fixed and unchangeable, no change in regard to the legality of these 
can be expected. They may be silently abandoned, but they can never 
be forbidden by law in any Mohammedan state. It should be said 
here, however, that, while the position of woman, as determined by the 
Koran, is one of inferiority and subjection, there is no truth whatever 
in the current idea that, according to the Koran, they have no souls, 
no hope of immortality and no rights. This is an absolutely unfounded 
slander. 

Another contrast between the morality of the Koran and the New 
Testament is found in the spirit with which the faith is to be propa¬ 
gated. The Prophet led His armies to battle and founded a temporal 
kingdom by force of arms. The Koran is full of exhortation to fight 
for the faith. Christ founded a spiritual kingdom, which could only 
be extended by loving persuasion and the influence of the Holy Spirit. 

It is true that Christians have had their wars of religion, and have 
committed as many crimes against humanity in the name of Christ as 
Moslems have ever committed in the name of the Prophet; but the 
opposite teaching on this subject in the Koran and the New Testament 
is unmistakable, and involves different conceptions of morality. 

Such, in general, is the ethical code of Islam. In practice there 
are certainly many Moslems whose moral lives are irreproachable 
according to the Christian standard, who fear God, and in their deal¬ 
ings with men are honest, truthful and benevolent; who are temperate 
in the gratification of their desires and cultivate a self-denying spirit, 
of whose sincere desire to do right there can be no doubt. 

There are those whose conceptions of pure spiritual religions seem 
to rival those of the Christian mystics. This is specially true of one or 
two sects of Dervishes. Some of these sects are simply Mohammedan 
Neo-Platonists, and deal in magic, sorcery and purely physical means 
of attaining a state of ecstacy; but others are neither pantheists nor 
theosophists, and seek to attain unity of spirit with a supreme, per¬ 
sonal God by spiritual means. 

Those who have had much acquaintance with Moslems know that 
in addition to these mystics there are many common people—as many 
women as men—who seem to have more or less clear ideas of spiritual 
life and strive to attain something higher than mere formal morality 


20 



Prayer in a Moorish Mosque 










THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


307 


and verbal confession; who feel their personal unworthiness, and hope 
only in God. 

The following extract from one of many similar poems of Shereef 
Hanum, a Turkish Moslem lady of Constantinople, rendered into En¬ 
glish by Rev. H. O. Dwight, is certainly as spiritual in thought and 
language as most of the hymns sung in Christian churches: 

“O Source of Kindness and of Love 
Who givest aid all hopes above, 

’Mid grief and guilt although I grope, 

From Thee I’ll ne’er cut off my hope. 

My Lord, O my Lord! 

Thou King of kings, dost know my need, 

Thy pardoning grace no bars can heed; 

Thou lov’st to help the helpless one, 

And bidd’st his cries of fear be done. 

My Lord, O my Lord! 

Should’st Thou refuse to still my fears, 

Who else will stop to dry my tears? 

For I am guilty, guilty still, 

No other one has done so ill. 

My Lord, O my Lord! 

The lost in torment stand aghast 
To see this rebel’s sin so vast; 

What wonder, then, that Shereef cries 
For mercy, mercy, e’er she dies. 

My Lord, O my Lord!” 

These facts are important, not as proving that Mohammedanism 
is a spiritual faith in the same sense as Christianity, for it is not, but as 
showing that many Moslems do attain some degree, at least, of what 
Christians mean by spiritual life; while, as we must confess, it is equally 
possible for Christianity to degenerate into mere formalism. 

Notwithstanding the generally high tone of the Moslem code of 
morals, and the more or less Christian experience of spiritually minded 
Mohammedans, I think that the chief distinction between Christian 
and Moslem morality lies in their different conceptions of the natuie 
and consequences of sin. 

It is true that most of the theories advanced by Christian writers 
on theoretical ethics have found defenders among the Moslems; but 
Mohammedan law is based on the theory that right and wrong depend 
on legal enactment, and Mohammedan thought follows the same 
direction. An act is right because God has commanded it, or wrong 
because He has forbidden it. God may abrogate or change His laws, 
so that what was wrong may become right. Moral acts have no 
inherent moral character, and what may be wrong for one may be 
right for another. So, for example, it is impossible to discuss the 
moral character of the prophet with an orthodox Moslem, because it 
is a sufficient answer to any criticism to say that God commanded or 
expressly permitted those acts which in other men would be wrong. 

There is, however, one sin which is in its very.nature sinful, and 


308 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


which man is capable of knowing to be such; that is, the sin of deny¬ 
ing that there is one God, and that Mohammed is His prophet. 
Everything else depends on the arbitrary command of God, and may 
be arbitrarily forgiven; but this does not,and is consequently unpardon¬ 
able. For whoever dies in this sin there is no possible escape from 
eternal damnation. 

Of other sins some are grave and some are light, and it must not 
be supposed that, the Moslem regards grave sins as of little conse¬ 
quence. He believes that sin is rebellion against infinite power, and 
that it cannot escape the notice of the all-seeing God, but must call 
down His wrath upon the sinner; so that even a good Moslem may be 
sent to hell to suffer torment for thousands of years before he is 
pardoned. 

But he believes that God is merciful; that “he is minded to make 
his religion light, because man has been created weak.” (Koran, sura 
4.) If man has sinned against His arbitrary commands, God may ar¬ 
bitrarily remit the penalty, on certain conditions, on the intercession 
of the Prophet, on account of the expiatory acts on the man’s part or 
in view of counterbalancing good works. At the worst, the Moslem 
will be sent to hell for a season and then be pardoned, out of consid¬ 
eration for his belief in God and the Prophet by divine mercy. Still, 
we need to repeat, the Moslem does not look upon sin as a light thing. 

But, notwithstanding this conception of the danger of sinning 
against God, the Mohammedan is very far from comprehending the 
Christian idea that right and wrong are inherent qualities in all moral 
actions; that God Himself is a moral being, doing what is right because 
it is right, and that He can no more pardon sin arbitrarily than He can 
make a wrong action right; that He could not be just and yet justify 
the sinner without the atonement made by the incarnation and the suf¬ 
fering and the death of Jesus Christ. 

They do not realize that sin itself is corruption and death; that 
mere escape from hell is not eternal life, but that the sinful soul must 
be regenerated and sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit before it 
can know the joy of beatific vision. 

Whether I have correctly stated the fundamental difference 
between the Christian and Mohammedan conceptions of sin, no one 
who has had Moslem friends can have failed to realize that the differ¬ 
ence exists, for it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, for Chris¬ 
tians and Moslems to understand one another when the question of 
sin is discussed. There seems to be a hereditary incapacity in the 
Moslem to comprehend this essential basis of Christian morality. 

Mohammedan morality is also differentiated from the Christian 
by its fatalistic interpretation of the doctrine of the Decrees. The 
Moslem who reads in the Koran, “As for every man we have firmly 
fixed his fate about his neck,” and the many similar passages, who is 
taught that at least so far as the future life is concerned his fate has 
been fixed from eternity by an arbitrary and irrevocable decree, natur¬ 
ally falls into fatalism; not absolute fatalism, for the Moslem, as we 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


309 


have seen, has his strict code of morality and his burdensome cere¬ 
monial law, but at least such a measure of fatalism as weakens his 
sense of personal responsibility, and leaves him to look upon the 
whole Christian scheme of redemption as unnecessary, if not 
absurd. 

It is perhaps also due to the fatalistic tendency of Mohammedan 
thought that the Moslem has a very different conception from the 
Christian of the relation of the will to the desires and passions. He 
does not distinguish between them, but regards will and desire as one 
and the same, and seeks to avoid temptation rather than resist it. Of 
conversion, in the Christian sense, he has no conception—of that 
change of heart which makes the regenerated will the master of the 
soul, to dominate its passions, control the desires and lead men on to 
final victory over sin and death. 

There is one other point concerning Mohammedan morality of 
which I wish to speak with all possible delicacy, but which cannot be 
passed over in silence. It is the influence of the prophet’s life upon 
that of his followers. The Moslem world accepts him, as Christians 
do Christ, as the ideal man, the best beloved of God, and consequently 
their conception of his life exerts an important influence upon their 
practical morality. 

I have said nothing, thus far, of the personal character of the 
prophet, because it is too difficult a question to discuss in this connec¬ 
tion; but I may say, in a word, that my own impression is that, from 
first to last, he sincerely and honestly believed himself to be a super- 
naturally inspired prophet of God. I have no wish to think any evil 
of him, for he was certainly one of the most remarkable men that the 
world has ever seen. I should rejoice to know that he was such a man 
as he is represented to be in Ameer Aali’s “Spirit of Islam,” for the 
world would be richer for having such a man in it. 

But whatever may have been his real character, he is known to 
Moslems chiefly through the traditions; and these, taken as a whole, 
present to us a totally different man from the Christ of the Gospels. 
As we have seen, the Moslem code of morals commands and forbids 
essentially the same things as the Christian; but the Moslem finds in 
the traditions a mass of stories in regard to the life and sayings of the 
prophet, many of which are altogether inconsistent with Christian ideas 
of morality, and which make the impression that many things forbidden 
are at least excusable. 

There are many nominal Christians who lead lives as corrupt as 
any Moslems, but they find no excuse for it in the life of Christ. They 
know that they are Christians only in name; while, under the influence 
of the traditions, the Mohammedan may have such a conception of 
the prophet that, in spite of his immorality, he may still believe him¬ 
self a true Moslem. If Moslems generally believed in such a prophet 
as is described in the “Spirit of Islam,” it would greatly modify the 
tone of Mohammedan life. 

We have now presented, as briefly and impartially as possible, the 


310 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


points of contact and contrast between Christianity and Islam, as his¬ 
torical, dogmatic and ethical. 

We have seen that while there is a broad, common ground of be¬ 
lief and sympathy, while we may confidently believe as Christians that 
God is leading many pious Moslems by the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, # and saving them through the atonement of Jesus Christ, in spite 
of what we believe to be their errors of doctrine, these two religions 
are still mutually exclusive and irreconcilable. 

The general points of agreement are that we both believe that 
there is one supreme, personal God; that we are bound to worship 
Him; that we are under obligation to live a pious, virtuous life; that 
we are bound to repent of our sins and forsake them; that the soul is 
immortal, and that we shall be rewarded or punished in the future life 
for our deeds here; that God has revealed His will to the world 
through prophets and apostles, and that the Holy Scriptures are the 
word of God. 

These are most important grounds of agreement and mutual re¬ 
spect, but the points of contrast are equally impressive. 

The supreme God of Christianity is immanent in the world, was 
incarnate in Christ, and is ever seeking to bring His children into lov¬ 
ing fellowship with Himself. 

The God of Islam is apart from the world, an absolute monarch, 
who is wise and merciful, but infinitely removed from man. 

Christianity recognizes the freedom of man, and magnifies the 
guilt and corruption of sin, but at the same time offers a way of recon¬ 
ciliation and redemption from sin and its consequences through the 
atonement of a Divine Saviour and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. 

Mohammedanism minimizes the freedom of man and the guilt of 
sin, makes little account of its corrupting influence in the soul and 
offers no plan of redemption except that of repentance and good works. 

Christianity finds its ideal man in the Christ of the Gospels; the 
Moslem finds his in the Prophet of the Koran and the Traditions. 

Other points of contrast have been mentioned, but the funda¬ 
mental difference between, the two religions is found in these. 

This is not the place to discuss the probable future of these two 
great and aggressive religions, but there is one fact bearing upon this 
point which comes within the scope of this paper. Christianity is 
essentially progressive, while Mohammedanism is unprogressive and 
stationary. 

In their origin Christianity and Islam are both Asiatic, both Sem¬ 
itic, and Jerusalem is but a few hundred miles from Mecca. In regard 
to the number of their adherents, both have steadily increased from 
the beginning to the present day. After 1,900 years Christianity 
numbers 400,000,000, and Islam, after 1,300 years, 200,000,000; but 
Mohammedanism has been practically confined to Asia and Africa, 
while Christianity has been the religion of Europe and the New 
World, and politically it rules over all the world, except China and 
Turkey. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


311 


Mohammedanism has been identified with a stationary civilization, 
and Christianity with a progressive one. There was a time from the 
eighth to the thirteenth centuries, when science and philosophy 
flourished at Bagdad and Cordova under Moslem rule, while darkness 
reigned in Europe; but Renan has shown that this brilliant period 
was neither Arab nor Mohammedan in its spirit or origin; and 
although his statements may admit of some modification, it is certain 
that, however brilliant while it lasted, this period has left no trace in 
the Moslem faith, unless it be in the philosophical basis of Moham¬ 
medan law, while Christianity has led the way in the progress of 
modern civilization. 

Both these are positive religions. Each claims to rest upon a 
divine revelation, which is, in its nature, final and unchangeable; yet 
the one is stationary and the other progressive. The one is based 
upon what it believes to be divine commands, and the other upon di¬ 
vine principles; just the difference that there is between the law of 
Sinai and the law of Love, the Ten Commandments and the two. The 
ten are specific and unchangeable; the two admit of ever new and pro¬ 
gressive application. 

Whether in prayer or in search of truth, the Moslem must always 
turn his face to Mecca and to a revelation made once for all to the 
prophet; and I think that Moslems generally take pride in the feeling 
that their faith is complete in itself, and as unchangeable as Mount 
Ararat. It cannot progress because it is already perfect. 

The Christian, on the other hand, believes in a living Christ, who 
was indeed crucified at Jerusalem, but rose from the dead and is now 
present everywhere, leading His people on to ever broader and higher 
conceptions of truth, and ever new applications of it to the life of 
humanity; and the Christian church, with some exceptions, perhaps, 
recognizes the fact that the perfection of its faith consists not in its 
immobility but in its adaptability to every stage of human enlighten¬ 
ment. If progress is to continue to be the watchword of civilization, 
the faith which is to dominate this civilization must also be pro¬ 
gressive 

It would have been pleasant to speak here today only of the 
broad field of sympathy which these two great religions occupy in 
common, but it would have been as unjust to the Moslem as to the 
Christian If I have represented his faith as fairly as I have sought to 
do, he will be the first to applaud. 

No true Moslem or Christian believes that these two great relig¬ 
ions are essentially the same, or that they can be merged by compro¬ 
mise in a common eclectic faith. We know that they are mutually ex¬ 
clusive, and it is only by a fair and honest comparison of differences 
that we can work together for the many ends which we have in com¬ 
mon, or judge of the 'truth in those things in which we differ. 



Bedouin Sheik (Mohammedan.) 





XIII. 

JUDAISM. 



J udaism. 



NE of the most important faiths of the 
world, which Christians, as well as Jews, 
consider to have been revealed by God. 

(i) Ancient Judaism.—The earliest form 
of the Jewish faith was patriarchal. On the 
night of the Israelitish departure from 
i Egypt an essential part of Judaism, in its 
second or more developed form, was 
begun by the institution of the passover 
(Exod. xii., xiii.). At Sinai two tables 
of stone were given containing the ten 
commandments. Subsequently there was 
revealed to Moses, to be by him com¬ 
municated to the people, a complicated 
system of ceremonial observances, inter¬ 
spersed with judicial enactments. A splen¬ 
did tabernacle— i. e. } a tent—on a divine model, was erected as the 
habitation of Jehovah, in the journeyings through the wilderness, 
to be in due time followed by a temple, when the people were perma¬ 
nently settled. A hereditary priesthood was consecrated, and a theo¬ 
cratic form of government maintained, the supreme civil ruler, whether 
lawgiver, military leader, judge, or king, being regarded as the vice¬ 
gerent of God. Ancient Judaism was the precursor of Christianity 
and the germ from which it sprang; and Christians generally believe 
that all the ceremonies, sacred personages, etc., of the older economy 
were types and shadows of the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ 
(Heb. ix., x., etc.). Colenso, in common with some rationalistic 
writers, believes that what he terms the Levitical or Later legislation 
was never really put in force till after the Babylonish captivity. 

(2) Modern Judaism.—After the Jews lost their independence and 
especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, the judicial regulations 
of the Mosaic law ceased to be observed. Tradition also gained 
increased authority, and in the latter half of the fourth century arose 
the Jerusalem, and in the sixth the Babylonian Talmud, containing 
the rules, constitutions, precepts, and interpretations intended to sup¬ 
plement those of the Old Testament. Notwithstanding these and 
other changes, modern Judaism still bears very considerable resem¬ 
blance to the ancient type of the faith.— American Encyclopedic 
Dictionary. 


315 





316 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The Jewish belief is, in substance: 

I. That there is one God, the Creator of all things, and first prin¬ 
ciple of all beings, who is self-sufficient and independent, and without 
whom no created being can subsist. 

II. That God is one and indivisible, but of a unity peculiar to 
Himself alone; that He has been, is, and shall forever be, the only 
God, blessed forever more. 

III. That God is an incorporeal being; He has no bodily 
quality of any kind whatever, which either is possible, or can any ways 
be imagined. 

IV. That God is eternal, and all beings, except Himself, had 
once a beginning; for God is the beginning and end of all things. 

V. That none but God is the object of divine adoration; and no 
created being ought to be worshiped as a mediator or intercessor. 

VI. That whatever is written in the books of the prophets is true; 
for there have been, and still may be, prophets qualified to receive the 
inspirations of the Supreme Being. 

VII. In the truth of the prophecies of our master Moses (peace be 
with him); for Moses was a prophet superior to all others; and God 
Almighty honored him with a peculiar gift of prophecy which was 
never granted to any of the rest. 

VIII. That the law left by Moses (peace be with him) was the 
pure dictate of God Himself; and consequently the explication of 
those commandments, which were handed down by tradition, came 
entirely from the mouth of God, who delivered it to our master Moses, 
as we have it at the present day. 

IX. That this law is unchangeable, and that God will never give 
another; nor can there be the least addition to, or diminution from it. 

X. That God perfectly knows the most secret thoughts, and 
governs all the actions of mankind. 

XI. That God will reward those who observe this law, and will 
severely punish such as are guilty of the least violation of it. Eternal 
life is the best and greatest reward, and damnation of the soul the most 
severe punishment. 

XII. That a Messiah shall come more deserving than all the 
kings that have ever lived. Although He thinks proper to delay His 
coming, no one ought on that account to question the truth of it, or 
set an appointed time for it, much less produce Scripture for the proof 
of it; since Israel will never have any king to rule over it but one that 
shall be of the line of David and Solomon. 

XIII. That God will raise the dead; and although I know not 
when, yet it will be when He sees most convenient. Hallowed be His 
name forever and ever. Amen. 

Pharisees.—The most numerous of the three divisions or orders 
of Judaism in the time of Christ, the other two being the Essenes and 
the Sadducees. They were so called because they kept aloof from 
Levitically impure food, separated themselves from the lawless people 
of the land, and united to keep the Mosaic law in accordance with 
Ezra vi., 21; ix., 1; x., 11; Neh. ix., 2; x., 28. Having to expound, to 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


317 


adapt to the vicissitudes of the commonwealth, and to administer such 
an extensive and gorgeous ritual as that of the Mosaic law, some of 
the Pharisees fell into extravagances, and laid more stress on trifling 
and petty formulae than on the spirit of the law. Hence, the Talmud 
itself divides the Pharisees into seven kinds: “ (i) The shoulder Phar¬ 
isee, who carries, as it were, his good works on his shoulders to boast 
of them openly, and is weighed down by his innumerable virtues; (2) 
the time-gaming Pharisee, who, when you ask for anything, always says, 
Let me go first to do a godly work; ’ (3) the deducting Pharisee, who 
says, ‘ Deduct from my many virtues the few vices I commit;’ (4) the 
saving Pharisee, who says, ‘ I save from my small means to be able to 
spend it on good works;’ (5) the Pharisee who says, ‘ Would that I 
knew what sin I committed that I might atone for it by doing a good 
work;’ (6) the God-fearing Pharisee, and (7) the God-loving Pharisee 
(.Jerusalem Berachoth , ix., 14; Babylon Sot a, 22 b), the last two of which 
alone are to be commended.” It is the first five kinds to whom the 
rebukes of Christ refer, and who have given rise to the term Pharisee 
being used as synonymous with a strict observer of external forms of 
religion without the spirit of it. 

Essenes.—A Jewish sect having affinities to, but not identical with, 
the Egyptian Therapeutae. They practiced voluntary poverty, had 
community of goods, and cultivated holiness of life. They represent 
Judaism in the form which it assumed when the Jew of Palestine be¬ 
gan, like his brethren abroad, to find in the Graeco-Alexandrian doc¬ 
trine a deeply religious conception of life. Essenism prepared a con¬ 
genial soil on which Christianity might work, but the two, as far as is 
known, never joined their forces into one ( Baur: Church History ). 

Sadducees.—One of the three Jewish sects. The current tradition, 
which was first published by Rabbi Nathan in the second century, is 
that the Sadducees derived their name from a certain Zadok, a disciple 
of Antigonus of Soko (B. C. 200-170). All the Jews admitted that 
the Mosaic law was given at Sinai by Jehovah Himself. Most of the 
people, with the concurrence and support of the Pharisees, believed 
that an oral law of Moses had similarly come from God. The Sad¬ 
ducees rejected this view, and would accept nothing beyond the 
written word. They were the Protestants of the older economy. 
Certain consequences followed. In the Mosaic law there is no reference 
to a state of rewards and punishments in a future world. When Jesus 
proves the resurrection from the Pentateuch, He does so by an inference, 
there being no direct passage which He can quote (Matt, xxii., 31, 32). 
The Sadducees, therefore, denied the resurrection from the dead 
(verse 23). The doctrine of a future world is taught in some passages 
of the Old Testament, specially in Dan. xiv., 2, 3, etc., which should 
have modified their belief. That it did not do so can be explained 
only by supposing that they attributed a higher inspiration to the 
Mosaic law than to other parts of the Old Testament. Epiphanius 
(.Hceres ., xiv.) and some other of the fathers assert that the Sadducees 
rejected all the Old Testament but the Pentateuch. Probably, how- 


318 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


ever, these writers confounded the Sadducees with the Samaritans. 
In Acts xxiii., 8, it is stated that they say that “ there is neither angel 
nor spirit.” How they could ignore all the angelic appearances in the 
Pentateuch (Gen. xvi., 7, u;xix., 1, etc.) is hard to understand. 
Perhaps they may have believed that, though angelic appearances 
once took place, they had now ceased. It is surprising that a sect 
with these views should, at least at one time, have almost monopolized 
the highest places in the priesthood; yet such was the case, at least tem¬ 
porarily (Acts iv., 1-6). But, with all their sacred office and worldly 
rank, they could have had no hold on the common people. It is 
probable that, when Christianity spread—even among its Jewish 
opponents—a belief in the resurrection, the Sadducees must have still 
further lost ground; but they ultimately revived, and still exist, under 
the name of Karaites .—American Encyclopaedic Dictionary . 

Reform Jews.—A schism among the Jews led to the formation of 
the Reformed Hebrew Church, in 1885, on the following platform: 

“We hold that Judaism presents the highest conception of the 
God idea as taught in our holy Scriptures and developed and spiritu¬ 
alized by Jewish teachers. We maintain that Judaism preserved and 
defended amid continual struggles and trials this God idea as the 
central religious truth for the human race. 

“ We recognize in the Bible the record of the consecration of the 
Jewish people to its mission as priests of the one God, and value it as 
the most potent instrument of religious and moral instruction. We 
hold that the modern discoveries of scientific researches in the domains 
of nature and history are not antagonistic to the doctrines of Judaism, 
the Bible reflecting the primitive ideas of its own age, and at times 
clothing its conception of divine providence and justice dealing with 
man in miraculous narratives. 

“We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the 
Jewish people for its mission during its natural life in Palestine, and 
to-day we accept as binding only the moral laws, and maintain only 
such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as 
are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization. 

“ We hold that all such Mosaic and Rabbinical laws as regulate diet, 
priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence 
of ideas altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. 
They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; 
their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further 
modern spiritual elevation. 

“ We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious com¬ 
munity, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine nor a sacri¬ 
ficial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of 
the laws concerning the Jewish state. 

“Christianity and Islam being daughter religions of Judaism, we 
appreciate their providential mission to and in the spreading of 
monotheistic and moral truth. We acknowledge that the spirit of 
broad humanity of our age is our ally and the fulfillment of our mission, 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


319 


and therefore we extend the hand of fellowship to all who operate with 
us in the establishment of the reign of truth and righteousness among 
men. 

“We reassert the doctrine of Judaism that the soul of man is 
immortal. We reject, as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both 
in bodily resurrection, and in Gehenna and Eden (hell and Paradise) 
as abodes for everlasting punishment or reward.” 

In 1890 there were in the United States 316 organizations of 
Orthodox Jews, who had 315 places of religious service, 57,597 church 
members, and church property valued at $2,802,05©; and 217 organiza¬ 
tions of Reform Jews, with 217 places of religious service, 72,899 mem¬ 
bers, and church property valued at $6,952,225; in all 533 organizations 
and 130,496 members, and $9,754,275 invested in church property. 



Dr. Isaac M. Wise, Cincinnati 














of Judaism. 


By DR. ISAAC M. WISE, of Cincinnati. 


E theology of Judaism, in the opinion of 
many, is a new academic discipline. They 
maintain Judaism is identical with legalism; it 
is a religion of deeds without dogmas. The¬ 
ology is a systematic treatise on the dogmas 
cf any religion. There could be no theology 
of Judaism. I he modern latitudinarians and 
syncretists on their part maintain we need 
more religion and less theology, or no the¬ 
ology at all, deeds and no creeds. For re¬ 
ligion is undefinable and purely subjective; 
theology defines and casts free sentiments into 
dictatorial words. Religion unites and theol¬ 
ogy divides the human family, not seldom, into 
hostile factions. 

Research and reflection antagonize these objections. They lead 
to conviction, both historically and psychologically. Truth unites and 
appeases; error begets antagonism and fanaticism. Error, whether in 
the spontaneous belief or in the scientific formulas of theology, is the 
cause of the distracting factionalism in the transcendental realm. 
Truth well defined is the most successful arbitrator among mental com¬ 
batants. It seems, therefore, that the best method to unite the human 
family in harmony, peace and good w ill is to construct a rational and 
humane system of theology as free from error as possible, clearly 
defined and appealing directly to the reason and conscience of all 
normal men. Research and reflection in the field of Israel’s literature 
and history produce the conviction that a code of laws is no religion. 
Yet legalism and observances are but one form of Judaism. The 
underlying principles and doctrines are essentially Judaism, and these 
are material to the theology of Judaism, and these are essentially 
dogmatic. 

Scriptures from the first to the last page advance the doctrine of 
divine inspiration and revelation. Ratiocinate this as you may, it 
always centers in the proposition: There exist an inter-relation and 
a faculty of intercommunication in the nature of that universal, prior 

21 321 





322 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


and superior being and the individualized being called man; and this 
also is a dogma. 

Scriptures teach that the Supreme Being is also Sovereign Provi¬ 
dence. He provides sustenance for all that stand in need of it. He 
foresees and foreordains all, shapes the destinies and disposes the 
affairs of man and mankind, and takes constant cognizance of their 
doings. He is the lawgiver, the judge and the executor of His laws. 
Press all this to the ultimate abstraction and formulate it as you may, 
it always centers in the proposition of “Die sittliche Weltordnung,” 
the universal, moral, just, benevolent and beneficent theocracy, which 
is the cause, source and text-book of all canons of ethics; and this again 
is a dogma. 

Scriptures teach that virtue and righteousness are rewarded; vice, 
misdeeds, crimes, sins are punished, inasmuch as they are free-will 
actions of man; and adds thereto that the free and benevolent Deity 
under certain conditions pardons sin, iniquity and transgression. 
Here is an apparent contradiction between justice and grace in the 
Supreme Being. Press this to its ultimate abstraction, formulate it as 
you may, and you will always arrive at some proposition concerning 
atonement, and this also is a dogma. 

As far back into the twilight of myths, the early dawn of human 
reason, as the origin of religious knowledge was traced, mankind was 
in possession of four dogmas. They were always present in men’s 
consciousness, although philosophy has not discovered the antece¬ 
dents of the syllogism, of which these are the conclusions. The excep¬ 
tions are only such tribes, clans or individuals that had not yet become 
conscious of their own sentiments, not being crystallized into concep¬ 
tions, and in consequence thereof had no words to express them; but 
these are very rare exceptions. These four dogmas are: 

1. There exists—in one or more forms of being—a superior being 
living, mightier and higher than any other being known or imagined. 
(Existence of God.) 

2. There is in the nature of this superior being, and in the nature 
of man, the capacity and desire of mutual sympathy, inter-relation and 
inter-communication. (Revelation and worship.) 

3. The good and the right, the true and the beautiful, are desir¬ 
able, the opposites thereof are detestable and repugnant to the superior 
being and to man. (Conscience, ethics and aesthetics.) 

4. There exists for man a state of felicity or torment beyond this 
state of mundane life. (Immortality, reward or punishment.) 

These four dogmas of the human family are the postulate of all 
theology and theologies, and they are axiomatic. They require no 
proof, for what all men always knew is self-evident; and no proof can 
be adduced to them, for they are transcendent. Philosophy, with its 
apparatuses and methods of cogitation, cannot reach them, cannot 
expound them, cannot negate them, and none ever did prove such 
negation satisfactorily even to the individual reasoner himself. 

All systems of theology are built on these four postulates. They 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


323 


differ only in the definitions of the quiddity, the extension and expan¬ 
sion ol these dogmas in accordance with the progression or retrogres¬ 
sion of different ages and countries. They differ in their derivation of 
doctrine or dogma from the main postulates; their reduction to prac¬ 
tice in ethics and worship, forms and formulas; their methods of 
application to human affairs, and their notions of obligation, account¬ 
ability, hope or fear. 

These accumulated differences in the various systems of theology, 
inasmuch as they are not logically contained in these postulates, are 
subject to criticism, an appeal to reason is always legitimate, a rational 
justification is requisite. The arguments advanced in all these cases 
are not always appeals to the standard of reason—therefore the dis¬ 
agreements—they are mostly historical. “Whatever we have not from 
the knowledge of all mankind we have from the knowledge of a very 
respectable portion of it in our holy books and sacred traditions” is 
the main argument. So each system of theology, in as far as it differs 
from others, relies for proof of its particular conceptions and knowl¬ 
edges on its traditions, written or unwritten, as the knowledge of a 
portion of mankind; so each particular theology depends on its 
sources. 

So also does Judaism. It is based upon the four postulates of all 
theology,and in justification of its extensions and expansions, its deri¬ 
vation of doctrine and dogma from the main postulates, its entire de¬ 
velopment, it points to its sources and traditions and at various times 
also to the standard of reason, not, however, till the philosophers 
pressed it to reason in self defense, because it claimed the divine 
authority for its sources, higher than which there is none. And so we 
have arrived at our subject. 

******** 

All knowledge of God and His attributes, the true and the good, 
came to man by successive revelations, of the indirect kind first, which 
we may call natural revelation, and the direct kind afterward which we 
may call transcendental revelation; both these revelations concerning 
God and His substantial attributes, together with their historical 
genesis, are recorded in the Thorah in the seven holy names of God, to 
which neither prophet nor philosopher in Israel added even one, and 
all of which constantly recur in all Hebrew literature. 

What we call the God of revelation is actually intended to desig¬ 
nate God as made known in the transcendental revelations including 
the successive God-ideas of natural revelation. His attributes of rela¬ 
tion are made known only in such passages of the Thorah, in which 
he himself is reported to have spoken to man of himself, his name and 
his attributes, and not by any induction or inference from any law, 
story or doing ascribed to God anywhere The prophets only expand 
or define those conceptions of Deity which these passages of direct 
transcendental revelation in the Thorah contain. 1 here exists no other 
source from which to derive the cognition of the God of revelation. 

Whatever theory or practice is contrary or contradictory to Israel’s 


324 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


God-cognition can have no place in the theology of Judaism. It com¬ 
promises necessarily: 

The doctrine concerning Providence, its relations to the individual, 
the nations and mankind. This includes the doctrine of covenant 
between God and man, God and the fathers of the nation, God and 
the people of Israel or the election of Israel. 

The doctrine concerning atonement. Are sins expiated, forgiven 
or pardoned, and which are the conditions or means for such expiation 
of sins? 

This leads us to the doctrine of divine worship generally, its oblig¬ 
atory nature, its proper means and forms, its subjective or objective 
import, which includes also the precepts concerning holy seasons, 
holy places* holy convocations and consecrated or specially appointed 
persons to conduct such divine worship, and the standard to distin¬ 
guish conscientiously in the Thorah, the laws, statutes and ordinances 
which were originally intended to be always obligatory, from those 
which were originally intended for a certain time and place and under 
special circumstances. 

The doctrine concerning the human will; is it free, conditioned or 
controlled by reason, faith or any other agency? This includes the 
postulate of ethics. 

The duty and accountability of man in all his relations to God, 
man and himself, to his nation and to his government and to the whole 
of the human family. This includes the duty we owe to the past, to 
that which the process of history developed and established. 

This leads to the doctrine concerning the future of mankind, the 
ultimate of the historical process, to culminate in a higher or lower 
status of humanity. This includes the question of perfectibility of 
human nature and the possibilities it contains, which establishes a 
standard of duty we owe to the future. 

The doctrine concerning personal immortality, future reward and 
punishment, the means by which such immortality is attained, the con¬ 
dition on which it depends, what insures reward or punishment. 

The theology of Judaism as a sytematic structure must solve these 
problems on the basis of Israel’s God- cognition. This being the highest 
in man’s cognition, the solution of all problems upon this basis, eccle¬ 
siastical, ethical, or in eschatology, must be final in theology, provided 
the judgment which leads to this solution is not erroneous. An erro ¬ 
neous judgment from true antecedents is possible. In such cases the 
first safeguard is an appeal to reason, and the second, though not sec¬ 
ondary, is an appeal to holy writ and its best commentaries. Wher¬ 
ever these two authorities agree, reason and holy writ, that the solu¬ 
tion of any problem from the basis of Israel’s God-cognition is cor¬ 
rect, certitude is established, the ultimate solution is found. 

This is the structure of a systematic theology, Israel’s God-cog¬ 
nition is the substratum, the substance; holy writ and the standard of 
reason are the desiderata, and the faculty of reason is the apparatus to 
solve the problems which in their unity are the theology of Judaism, 
higher than which none can be. 


1 he Relation of historic Judaism to 
the Past, and jts puture. 

By Rev. H. PEREIRA MENDES, of New York. 



UR history may be divided into three eras 
—the biblical, the era from the close of 
the Bible record to the present day, the 
future. The first is the era of the an¬ 
nouncement of those ideals which are 
essential for mankind’s happiness and 
progress. The Bible contains for us and 
for humanity all ideals worthy of human 
effort to attain. I make no exception. 
The attitude of historical Judaism is to 
hold up these ideals for mankind’s inspi¬ 
ration and for all men to pattern life accord- 
• ingly. 

The first divine message to Abraham con¬ 
tains the ideal of righteous Altruism—“Be a 
source of blessing ” And in the message an¬ 
nouncing the Covenant is the ideal of righteous egotism. “Walk be¬ 
fore Me and be perfect.” “Recognize me, God, be a blessing to thy 
fellow man, be perfect thyself.” Could religion ever be more strik¬ 
ingly summed up? 

The life of Abraham, as we have it recorded, is a logical response, 
despite any human feeling. Thus he refused booty he had captured. 
It was an ideal of warfare not yet realized—that to the victor the 
spoils did not necessarily belong. Childless and old, he believed God’s 
promise that his descendants should be numerous as the stars. It was 
an ideal faith; that also, and more, w r as his readiness to sacrifice Isaac 
—a sacrifice ordered, to make more public his God’s condemnation of 
Canaanite child-sacrifice. It revealed an ideal God, who w r ould not 
allow religion to cloak outrage upon holy sentiments of humanity. 

To Moses next were high ideals imparted for mankind to aim at. 
On the very threshold of his mission the ideal of “the Fatherhood of 
God” was announced—“Israel is my son, my first born,” implying that 

325 





Rabbi E. G. Hirsch, Chicago 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


327 


other nations are also his children Then at Sinai were given him 
those ten ideals of human conduct, which, called the “ten command¬ 
ments,” receive the allegiance of the great nations of today. Magnifi¬ 
cent ideals! Yes, but not as magnificent as the three ideals of God 
revealed to him—God is mercy, God is love, God is holiness. 

“The Lord thy God loveth thee.” The echoes of this are the 
commands to the Hebrews and to the world. “Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy 
might.” “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” “Thou shalt not 
hate thy brother in thy heart; ye shall love the stranger.” God is 
holiness! “Be holy! for I am holy;” “it is God calling to man to par¬ 
ticipate in his divine nature.” 

To the essayist on Moses belongs the setting forth of other ideals 
associated with him. The historian may dwell upon his “proclaim 
freedom throughout the land to its inhabitants.” It is written on 
Philadelphia Liberty Bell, announcing “ Free America.” The politi¬ 
cian may ponder upon his land tenure system; his declaration that 
the poor have rights; his limitation of priestly wealth; his separation 
of church and state. The preacher may dilate upon that Mosaic ideal 
so bright with hope and faith—wings of the human soul as it flies forth 
to find God—that God is the God of the spirits of all flesh; it is a 
flashlight of immortality upon the storm-tossed waters of human life 
The physician may elaborate his dietary and health laws, designed to 
prolong life and render man more able to do his duty to society. 

The moralist may point to the ideal of personal responsibility, 
not even a Moses can offer himself to die to save sinners. The ex¬ 
ponent of natural law in the spiritual world is anticipated by his “Not 
by bread alone does man live, but by obedience to divine law.” The 
lecturer on ethics may enlarge upon moral impulses, their co-relation, 
free will and such like ideas; it is Moses who teaches the quickening 
cause of all is God’s revelation, “Our wisdom and our understanding,” 
and who sets before us “Life and death, blessing and blighting,” to 
choose either, though he advises “choose the life ” Tenderness to 
brute creation, equality of aliens, kindness to servants, justice to the 
employed; what code of ethics has brighter gems of ideal than those 
which make glorious the law of Moses! 

As for our other prophets, we can only glance at their ideals of 
purity in social life, in business life, in personal life, in political life, 
and in religious life. We need no Bryce to tell us how much or how 
little they obtain in our commonwealth today. So, also, if we only 
mention the ideal relation which they hold up for ruler and the people, 
and the former “should be servants to the latter,” it is only in view of 
the tremendous results in history. 

For these very words license the English revolution. From that 
very chapter of the Bible the cry, “To your tents, O Israel,” was taken 
by the Puritans, who fought with the Bible in one hand. Child of that 
English revolt, which soon consummated English liberty, America was 
born—herself the parent of the French revolution, which has made so 


328 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


many kings the servants of their peoples. English liberty, America’s 
birth, French revolution! Three tremendous results truly! Let us, 
however, set these aside, great as they are, and mark those grand ideals 
which our prophets were the first to preach. 

1. Universal peace, or settlement of national disputes by arbitra¬ 
tion. When Micah and Isaiah announced this ideal of universal peace 
it was the age of war, of despotism. They may have been regarded as 
lunatics. Now all true men desire it, all good men pray for it, and 
bright among the jewels of Chicago’s coronet this year is her universal 
peace convention. 

2. Universal brotherhood. If Israel is God’s first born and other 
nations are therefore His children, Malachi’s “ Have we not all one 
Father?” does not surprise us. The ideal is recognized today. It is 
prayed for by the Catholics, by the Protestants, by Hebrews, by all men. 

3. The universal happiness. This is the greatest. For the ideal 
of universal happiness includes both universal peace and universal 
brotherhood. It adds being at peace with God, for without that hap¬ 
piness is impossible Hence the prophet’s bright ideal that one day 
“All shall know the Lord, from the greatest to the least,” “ Earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,” and 
“All nations shall come and bow down before God and honor His 
name.” 

Add to those prophet ideals those of our Ketubim. The “seek 
wisdom” of Solomon, of which the “ Know thyself ” of Socrates is but 
a partial echo; Job’s “Let not the finite creature attempt to fathom 
the infinite Creator;” David’s Teachings after God! And then let it be 
clearly understood that these and all ideals of the Bible era are but a 
prelude and overture. How grand, then, must be the music of the next 
era which now claims our attention. 

The era from Bible days to these is the era of the formation of 
religious and philosophic systems throughout the Orient and the classic 
world. What grand harmonies, but what crashing discords sound 
through these ages! Melting and swelling in mighty diapason they 
come to us today as the music which once swayed men’s souls, now 
lifting them with holy emotion, now mocking, now soothing, now 
exciting. For those religions, those philosophies were mighty plectra 
in their day to wake the human heartstrings. Above them all rang the 
voice of historical Judaism, clear and lasting, while other sounds blended 
or were lost. Sometimes the voice was in harmony; most often it was 
discordant as it clashed with the dominant note of the day. For it 
sometimes met sweet and elevating strains of morality, of beautv, but 
more often it met the debasing sounds of immorality and error. 

Thus Kuenen speaks of “the affinity of Judaism and Zoroastrian¬ 
ism in Persia to the affinity of a common atmosphere of lofty truth, of 
a simultaneous sympathy in their view of earthly and heavenly things.” 
If Max Muller declares Zoroastrianism originally was monotheistic, so 
far historic Judaism could harmonize. But it would raise a voice of 
protest when Zoroastrianism became a dualism of Ormuzd, light or 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


329 


good, and Ahriman, darkness or evil Hence the anticipatory protest 
proclaimed by Isaiah in God’s very message to Cyrus, king of Persia, 
“I am the Lord, and there is none else.” “I formed the light and 
create darkness.” “ I make peace and create evil.” “ I am the Lord, 
and there is none else; that is, I do these things, not Ormuzd or 
Ahriman.” 

Interesting as would be a consideration of the mutual debt be¬ 
tween Judaism and Zoroastrianism, with the borrowed angelology and 
demonology of the former compared with the “ahmiyat ahmi Mazdan 
amma” of the latter manifestly borrowed from the “I am that I am” 
of the former, we cannot pause here for it. 

Similarly, historical Judaism would harmonize with Confucius’s 
instance of belief in a Supreme Being, filial duty, his famous “What 
you do not like when done to you, do not unto others,” and of 
the Buddhistic teachings of universal peace. But against what is con¬ 
trary to Bible ideal it would protest, and from it it would hold 
separate. 

In 521 B. C., Zoroastrianism was revived. Confucius was then 
actually living. Gautama Buddha died in 543. Is the closeness of the 
dates mere chance? The Jews had long been in Babylon. As Gesenius 
and Movers observe, there was traffic of merchants between China and 
India via Babylonia with Phoenicia, and not unworthy of mark is 
Ernest Renan’s observation that Babylon had long been a focus of 
Buddhism and that Boudasy was a Chaldean sage. If future research 
should ever reveal an influence of Jewish thought on these three great 
oriental faiths, all originally holding beautiful thoughts, however 
later ages might have obscured them, would it not be partial fulfillment 
of the prophecy, so far as -concerns the orient, “that Israel shall 
blossom into bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit?” 

In the west as in the east, historical Judaism was in harmony with 
any ideals of classic philosophy which echoed those of the Bible. It 
protested where they failed to do so, and because it failed most often 
historical Judaism remained separate. 

Thus, as Dr. Drummond remarks, Socrates was “in a certain sense 
monotheistic, and in distinction from the other gods mentions Him 
who orders and holds together the entire Kosmos,” “in whom are all 
things beautiful and good,” “who from the beginning makes men”— 
historical Judaism commends. 

Again, Plato, his disciple, taught that God was good or that the 
planets rose from the reason and understanding of God. Historical 
Judaism is in accord with its ideal “God is good,” so oft repeated and 
its thought hymned in the almost identical words, “Good are the lumi¬ 
naries which our God created; He formed them with knowledge, 
understanding and skill.” But when Plato condemns studies except 
as mental training and desires no practical results; when he even 
rebukes Arytas for inventing machines on mathematical principles, 
declaring it was worthy only of carpenters and wheelwrights, and when 
his master, Socrates, says to Glaucon, “It amuses me to see how afraid 


m 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


you are lest the common herd accuse you of recommending useless 
studies”—the useless study in question being astronomy—historical 
Judaism is opposed and protests. For it holds that even Bezaleal and 
Aholiab is filled with the spirit of God. It bids us study astronomy to 
learn of God thereby. “Lift up your eyes on high and see who hath 
created these things, who bringeth out their host by number. Hecall- 
eth them all by name, by the greatness of His might, for He is strong 
in power; not one faileth.” Even as later sages practically teach the 
dignity of labor by themselves engaging in it. And when Macaulay 
remarks “from the testimony of friends as well as of foes, from the 
confessions of Epictetus and Seneca, as well as from the sneers of 
Lucian and the invectives of Juvenal, it is plain that these teachers of 
virtue had all the vices of their neighbors with the additional one of 
hypocrisy,” it is easy to understand the relation of historical Judaism 
to these with its ideal, “Be perfect.” 

Similarly the sophist school declared “there is no truth, no virtue, 
no justice, no blasphemy, for there are no gods; right and wrong are 
conventional terms.” The skeptic school proclaimed “we have no cri¬ 
terion of action or judgment; we cannot know the truth of anything; we 
assert nothing; not even the Epicurean school taught pleasure’s pursuit. 
But historical Judaism solemnly protested. What are those teachings 
of our Pirke Avoth but protests formerly formulated by our religious 
heads? Said they: “The Torah is the criterion of conduct. Worship 
instead of doubting. Do philanthropic acts instead of seeking only 
pleasure. Society’s safeguards are law, worship and philanthropy.” 
So preached Simon Hatzadik. “Love labor,” preached Shemangia to 
the votary of epicurean ease. “Procure thyself an instructor,” was 
Gamaliel’s advice to anyone in doubt. “The practical application, not 
the theory, is the essential,” was the cry of Simon to Platonist or 
Pyrrhic. “Deed first, then creed.” “Yes,” added Abtalion, “Deed 
first, then creed, never greed.” “Be not like servants who serve their 
master for price; be like servants who serve without thought of price 
—and let the fear of God be upon you.” “Separation and protest” 
was thus the cry against these thought-vagaries. 

Brilliant instance of the policy of separation and protest was the 
glorious Maccabean effort to combat Hellenist philosophy. 

If but for Charles Martel and Poictiers, Europe would long have 
been Mohammedan, then for but Judas Maccabeus and Bethoron or Em- 
maus, Judaism would have been strangled. But no Judaism, no Chris¬ 
tianity. Take either faith out of the world and what would our civili¬ 
zation be? Christianity was born, originally and as designed and 
declared by its founder, not to change or alter one tittle of the law of 
Moses. 

If the Nazarene teacher claimed tacitly or not the title of “Son of 
God” in any sense save that which Moses meant when he said, “Ye 
are children of your God,” can we wonder that there was a Hebrew 
protest? 

Historical Judaism soon found cause to be separate ahd to pro- 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


331 

test. For sect upon sect arose—Ebionites, Gentile Christians, Jewish 
Christians, Nazarenes, Gnostic Christians, Masboteans, Basilidians, 
Valentinians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, Balaamites, Nicolaites, Em- 
kratites, Cainites, Ophites or Nahasites; evangels of these and of others 
were multiplied, new prophets were named, such as Pachor, Barkor, 
Barkoph, Armagil, Abraxos, etc. At last the Christianity of Paul rose 
supreme, but doctrines were found to be engrafted which not only 
caused the famous Christian heresies of Pelagius, Nestorius, Eutyches, 
etc., but obliged historical Judaism to maintain its attitude of separa¬ 
tion and protest. For its Bible ideals were invaded. It could not join 
all the sects and all the heresies. So it joined none. 

Presently the Crescent of Islam rose. From Bagdad to Granada 
Hebrews prepared protests which the Christians carried to ferment in 
their distant homes. For through the Arabs and the Jews the old 
classics were revived and experimental science was fostered. The 
misuse of the former made the methods of the academicians the 
methods of the scholastic fathers. But it made Aristotleian philoso¬ 
phy dominant. Experiment widened men’s view's. The sentiment of 
protest was imbibed—sentiment against scholastic argument, against 
bidding research for practical ends, against the supposition “that 
syllogistic reasoning could ever conduct men to the discovery of any 
new principle,” or that such discoveries could be made except by 
induction, as Aristotle held, against the official denial of ascertained 
truth, as, for example, earth’s rotundity. This protest sentiment in 
time produced the reformation. Later it gave wonderful impulse to 
thought and effort, which has substituted modern civilization, w'ith its 
glorious conquests, for medieval semi-darkness. 

Here the era of the past is becoming the era of the present. Still 
historical Judaism maintained its attitude. 

As the new philosophies were born, it is said, w'ith Bacon, “Let us 
have fruits, practical results, not foliage or mere words.” But it 
opposed a Voltaire and a Paine when they made their ribald attacks. 
It could but praise the success of a Newton as he “crowned the long 
labors of the astronomers and physicists by co-ordinating the phenom¬ 
ena of solar motion throughout the visible universe into one vast 
system.” So it could only cry “Amen” to a Kepler and a Galileo. 
For did they not all prove the long unsuspected magnificence of the 
Hebrew’s God, who made and who ruled the heavens and heaven of 
heavens, and who presides over the circuit of the earth, as Isaiah tells 
us? So it cried “Amen” to a Dalton, to a Linnaeus; for the “atomic 
notation of the former was as serviceable to chemistry as the binom¬ 
inal nomenclature and the classificatory schematism of the latter were 
to zoology and botany.” What else could historic Judaism cry when 
the first message to man was to subdue earth, capture its powers, har¬ 
ness them, work? True historical Judaism means progress. 

A word more as to the attitude of historic Judaism to modern 
thought. If Hegel’s last work was a course of lectures on the proofs 
of the existence of God; if in his lectures on religion he turned his 



The Hiding of Moses. 


























































































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


333 


weapon against the rationalistic schools which reduced religion to the 
modicum compatible with an ordinary, worldly mind and criticise the 
school of Schleirmacher, who elevated feeling to a place in religion 
above systematic theology, we agree with him. But when he gives 
successive phases of religion and concludes with Christianity, the 
highest, because reconciliation is there in open doctrine, we cry, do 
justice also to the Hebrew. Is not the Hebrew’s ideal God a God of 
mercy, a God of reconciliation? It is said, “Not forever will He con¬ 
tend, neither doth He retain His anger forever.” That is, He will be 
reconciled. 

We agree with much of Compte, and with him elevate womanhood, 
but we do not, cannot exclude woman, as he does, from public action; 
for besides the teachings of reverence and honor for motherhood; be¬ 
sides the Bible tribute to wifehood “that a good wife is a gift of 
God;” besides the grand tribute to womanhood offered in the last 
chapter of Proverbs, we produce a Deborah or a woman-president, a 
Huldah as worthy to give a divine message. 

If Darwin and the disciples of evolution pioclaim their theory, 
the Hebrew points to Genesis ii, 3, where it speaks of what God has 
created “toanake,” infinitive mood; “not made,” as erroneously trans¬ 
lated. But historic Judaism protests when any source of life is indi¬ 
cated, save in the breath of God alone. 

We march in the van of progress, but our hand is always raised, 
pointing to God. This is the attitude of historical Judaism. And now 
to sum up. For the future opens before us. 

First. The “separatist” thought. Genesis tells us how Abraham 
obeyed it. Exodus illustrates it: We are “separated from all the 
people upon the face of the earth.” Leviticus proclaims it: “I have 
separated you from the peoples.” “I have severed you from the peo¬ 
ples.” Numbers illustrates it: “Behold, the people shall dwell alone.” 
And Deuteronomy declares it: “He hath avouched thee to be His 
special people.” 

The thought began as our nation; it grew as it grew. To test its 
wisdom, let us ask who have survived? The 7,000 separatists who did 
not bend to Baal or those who did? Those who thronged Babylo¬ 
nian schools at Pumbeditha or Nahardea, or those who succumbed to 
Magianinfluence? The Maccabees, who -fought to separate, or the 
Hellenists,who aped Greek or the Sectarians of their day? The Bnai 
Yisrael remnant, recently discovered in India, under the auspices of 
the Anglo-Jewish association, the discovery of Theaou-Kin-Keaou, or 
“ people who cut out the sinew,” in China, point in this direction of 
separation as a necessity for existence. 

And who are the Hebrews of today here and in Europe, the 
descendants of those who preferred to keep separate, and therefore 
chose exile or death, or those who yielded and were baptized? The 
course of historic Judaism is clear. It is to keep separate. 

Second. The protest thought. We must continue to protest against 
social, religious or political error with the eloquence of reason. Never 


334 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


by the force of violence. No error is too insignificant; none can be 
too stupendous for us to notice. The cruelty which shoots the inno¬ 
cent doves for sport; the crime of duelists who risk life which is not 
theirs to risk, for it belongs to country, wife or mother, to child or to 
society; the militarianism of modern nations, the transformation of 
patriotism, politics or service of one’s country into a business for per¬ 
sonal profit, until these and all wrongs be rectified, we Hebrews must 
keep separate, and we must protest. 

And keep separate and protest we will, until all error shall be 
cast to the moles and bats. We are told that Europe’s armies amount 
to 22,000,000 of men. Imagine it! Are we not right to protest that 
arbitration and not the rule of might should decide? Yet, let me not 
cite instances which render protest necessary. “Time would fail, and 
the tale would not be told,” to quote a rabbi. 

How far separation and protest constitute our historical Jewish 
policy is evident from what I have said. Apart from this, socially, we 
unite whole-heartedly and without reservation with our non-Jewish 
fellow citizens; we recognize no difference between Hebrew and non- 
Hebrew. 

We declare that the attitude of historical Judaism, and, for that 
matter, of the reform school also, is to serve our country as good citi¬ 
zens, to be on the side of law and order and fight anarchy. We are 
bound to forward every humanitarian movement; where want or pain 
calls there must be answer; and condemned by all true men be the Jew 
who refuses aid because he who needs it is not a Jew. In the intrica¬ 
cies of science, in the pursuit of all that widens human knowledge, in 
the path of all that benefits humanity, the Jew must walk abreast with 
non-Jew, except he pass him in generous rivalry. With the non-Jew 
we must press onward, but for all men and for ourselves we must ever 
point upward to the Common Father of all. Marching forward, as 1 
have said, but pointing upward, this is the attitude of historical 
Judaism. 

Religiously, the attitude of historical Judaism is expressed in the 
creeds formulated by Maimonides, as follows: 

We believe in God the Creator of all, a unity, a Spirit who never 
assumed corporeal form, Eternal, and He alone ought to be worshiped. 

We unite with Christians in the belief that revelation is inspired. 
We unite with the founder of Christianity that not one jot or title of 
the law should be changed. Hence we do not accept a First Day 
Sabbath, etc. 

We unite in believing that God is omniscient and just, good, lov¬ 
ing and merciful. 

We unite in the belief of a coming Messiah. 

We unite in our belief in immortality. In these Judaism and 
Christianity agree. 

As for the development of Judaism, we believe in change in relig¬ 
ious custom or idea only when effected in accordance with the spirit 
of God’s law and the highest authority attainable. But no change 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


335 


without. Hence we cannot, and may not, recognize the authority of 
any conference of Jewish rabbis or ministers, unless those attending 
are formally empowered by their communities or congregations to 
represent them Needless to add, they must be sufficiently versed in 
Hebrew law and lore; they must live lives consistent with Bible teach¬ 
ings and they must be sufficiently advanced in age so as not to be inv 
mature in thought. 

And we believe, heart, soul and might, in the restoration of Pales¬ 
tine, a Hebrew state, from the Nile to the Euphrates—even though as 
Isaiah intimates in his very song of restoration, some Hebrews remain 
among the Gentiles. 

We believe in the future establishment of a court of arbitration, 
above suspicion, for a settlement of nations’ disputes, such as could 
well be in the shadow of that temple which we believe shall one day 
arise to be a “house of prayer for all peoples,” united at last in the 
service of one Father. How far the restoration will solve present pressing 
Jewish problems, how far such spiritual organization will guarantee 
man against falling into error, we cannot here discuss. What if doc¬ 
trines, customs and aims separate us now? 

There is a legend that when Adam and Eve were turned out of 
Eden or earthly paradise, an angel smashed the gates and the frag¬ 
ments flying all over the earth are the precious stones. We can carry 
the legend further. 

The precious stones were picked up by the various religions and 
philosophers of the world. Each claimed and claims that its own 
fragment alone reflects the light of heaven, forgetting the settings 
and incrustations which time has added. Patience, my brothers. In 
God’s own time, we shall, all of us, fit our fragments together and 
reconstruct the gates of paradise. There will be an era of reconcilia¬ 
tion of all living faiths and systems, the era of all being in at-one- 
ment, or atonement, with God. Through the gates shall all people 
pass to the foot of God’s throne. The throne is called by us the 
mercy-seat. Name of happy augury, for God’s mercy shall wipe out 
the record of mankind’s errors and strayings, the sad story of our 
unbrotherly actions. Then shall we better know God’s ways and 
behold His glory more clearly, as it is written, “They shall all know 
Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, 
for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no 
more.” (Jer, xxxi, 34.) 

Yes, the attitude of historical Judaism to the world will be in the 
future, as in the past, helping mankind with His Bible, until the gates 
of earthly paradise shall be reconstructed by mankind’s joint efforts, 
and all nations whom Thou, God, hast made, shall go through and 
worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name! 


AT THE WORLD’S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS. 

The Jewish Denominational Congress convened in the Memorial 
Art Palace, August 27th to 30th, and September 13th and 15th, under the 
auspices of the Union of American Hebrew congregations and the Cen¬ 
tral Conference of American rabbis.. This was the first time in history 
that the Jews were granted such an opportunity to declare before the 
world publicly and fearlessly their fundamental doctrines, hopes and 
aims, their chief spiritual contributions to humanity, their atitude 
toward other religions, and the respect in which Judaism is still in¬ 
dispensable to the highest civilization. The eleven sessions were well 
attended. The essayists presented their subjects with learning, clear¬ 
ness, courage and love, and the enthusiasm born of conviction. It was 
a memorable occasion, an epoch-marking event, and noteworthy are 
the words with which President Charles C. Bonney opened the first ses¬ 
sion in the Hall of Columbus: “The Providence of the God of Abra¬ 
ham, Isaac and Jacob, has so ordered the arrangements of the religious 
congresses under the auspices of the World’s Congress Auxiliary of 
the World’s Columbian Exposition that the mother church from which 
all the Christian denominations trace their lineage, and which stands 
in the history of mankind as the especial exponent of august and tri¬ 
umphant theism, has been called upon to open the religious congresses 
of 1893. But far more important and significant is the fact that this 
arrangement has been made, and this congress is now formally opened 
and welcomed by as ultra and ardent a Christian as the world con¬ 
tains. It is because I am a Christian, and the chairman of the general 
committee of organization of the religious congresses is a Christian, and 
a large majority of that committee are Christians, that this day deserves 
to stand gold-bordered in human history, as one of the signs that a 
new age of brotherhood and peace has truly come.” 

The theology of Judaism was treated by Rabbi Isaac M.Wise, of Cin¬ 
cinnati, Ohio, who defined Judaism to be “ the complex of Israel’s relig¬ 
ious sentiments ratiocinated to conceptions in harmony with its Jeho- 
vistic God-cognition. The God-cognition always precedes the religious 
idea with its commandments and institutions. It is the principle, the 
first cause and touchstone for all religious knowledges, ordinances and 
institutions. All religious dogmas and practices must be legitimate 
conclusions from that principle. The law of laws is, “whatever is in 
my cognition of God is imperative in my religion; whatever is contrary 
to my cognition of God is irreligious and forbidden to me.” Israel did 
not make its God; God made Himself known to Israel, and its entire 
religion grew out of this knowledge; whatever is not in harmony with 
it is error. Therefore is Israel’s religion called “Veneration and Wor¬ 
ship of Jehovah” (Ps. xix, 10); its laws and institutions are divine in¬ 
asmuch, as they are the sequence of this antecedent; and its expound¬ 
ers maintain that this monotheism is the only dogma of Judaism. Its 
formula is ‘ The Eternal our God, the Eternal is one ’ and its categoric 
imperative is 4 Ye shall walk after the Eternal your God.’ This God 
of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jaocb, the God enthroned in 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


337 


Zion is not a tribal, or national, a local, or any special God. He is the 
one God revealed to Israel and known, worshiped and proclaimed bv 
Israel only, the Creator, the Judge, the Possessor of heaven and earth, 
exalted above all time and space, the eternal, infinite, absolute, univer¬ 
sal and omnipresent God, supreme Love and Truth, the highest ideal 
of moral perfection. From this God, cognition follows the belief in a 
universal and special providence, the atonement of sins, the efficacy 
of divine worship, the freedom of the will, the accountability, the per¬ 
fectibility and the personal immortality of man. These are recorded 
in the national literature of the Hebrews and actualized in their history. 
Their truth or error is to be tested by an appeal to reason and Holv 
Writ.” y 

In another essay on the ‘Ethics of Judaism,’ delivered at the 
presentation, Rabbi Wise further explained that it is “the duty of man 
to strive continually to become Godlike, to come as near as possible 
to the highest ideal of disinterested goodness, love, mercy, justice, 
holiness and all the other virtues which the innate moral law urges 
and our God-cognition defines, as Scriptures declare: ‘Walk before 
Me and become thou perfect’ (Gen. xvii, i). ‘Thou shalt become 
perfect with the Lord thy God” (Deut. xviii, 13). ‘Ye shall walk 
after the Lord your God ’ (Deut. xiii, 5). According to Judaism, the 
moral law was not bestowed by God upon Israel only; it was not con¬ 
ditioned by any creed, faith, law or institution; it was the blessing God 
bestowed upon Adam (Gen. i, 28), the heritage of the entire human 
family, as Micah said (vi, 8): * He hath told thee, O man, what is 

good,’ and not O Israel, O Greek, O Roman.’ Any person who con¬ 
scientiously regulates his volitions and actions to the best of his 
knowledge in obedience to this moral law is a righteous man, however 
different his doings may be from those ordained in the Law of Moses; 
and the rabbis of old declared that his reward would be eternal life. 
Yet to define the requirements of this moral law the Thora (Penta¬ 
teuch) was given to Israel, and with precision it explains what is good 
and right, true and beautiful in all human affairs, national, social and 
individual. It reveals to man the ideal of moral perfection and prompts 
him to rise in the moral scale toward this ideal, the Holy God. Still 
it is advisory only, there is no coercion, there can be none, for this 
same Thora teaches the principle of freedom and the duty of reason¬ 
ing, and that the moral value of any act is commensurate with its mo¬ 
tive, whereas coercion is an imposition, no inner motive at all, cer¬ 
tainly no virtue, whatever action it produces is morally indifferent. 

Ethics of the Talmud, by Prof. Moses Mielziner, described “ that 
stupendous work which records the development of Judaism during 
nearly a thousand years after the close of the Bible, and maintained 
that Talmudical ethics is the ethics of the Bible enriched and devel¬ 
oped by the wisdom, observation and experience of the rabbis. The 
moral teachings in that famous book are eminently practical, and at 
the same time breathe a spirit of love and tolerance and lofty human¬ 
ity, as a few quotations will aptly illustrate: ‘Without knowledge 

22 



Tomb of Rachel 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


339 


there is no true morality and piety.’ ‘Great is the dignity of labor; it 
honors man.’ ‘He who does not teach his son a trade, neglects his 
parental duty.’ ‘The world rests on three things: justice, truth and 
peace.’ ‘Whatever would be hateful to thee, do not to thy neigh¬ 
bor; this is the law, all else is but commentary.’ ‘Let thy yea be in 
truth and thy nay be in truth.’ ‘Deception in words is as great a sin 
as deception in money matters.’ ‘He who turns away from works of 
love and charity turns away from God.’ ‘Works of charity have more 
value than sacrifices; they are equal to the performance of all religious 
duties.” ‘ Do not separate thyself from society.’ ‘Better is he who 
lives off the toil of his hand than he who indulges in idle piety.’ ‘He 
who lives without a wife is no perfect man.’ ‘If thou hast the means, 
enjoy life’s innocent pleasures.’ ‘No one ought to afflict himself by 
unnecessary fasting.' ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, is the 
all-embracing principle of the divine law.’ ‘The duries of justice, 
veracity, peacefulness and charity are to be fulfilled toward the non- 
Jew as well as the Jew.’ ‘The pious and virtuous of all nations will go 
to heaven,” i. e ., man’s salvation depends not on the acceptance of cer¬ 
tain articles of belief, nor on certain ceremonial observances, but on 
that which is the ultimate aim of religion, morality, purity of heart and 
holiness of life.” 

The Doctrine of Immortality in Judaism, by Rabbi Joseph Stolz, 
of Chicago: Hemaintained that“man’s personal immortality was always 
an established belief in Israel. Throughout all his long history we 
search in vain for a period when this doctrine was not affirmed, be¬ 
lieved or defended by the Jew. The voluminous literature of Judaism 
is unanimous on the subject. It has the sanction of priest and prophet, 
bard and sage, rabbi and people. It is confirmed by precept and by 
ritual practice. Saul would never have asked the witch of Endor to 
conjure up the spirit of Samuel, nor would Moses have prohibited ‘‘in¬ 
quiring of familiar spirits and communing with the dead” had the peo¬ 
ple not believed in conscious existence after death. Were not a belief 
in immortality current the people would not have told of the dead 
children Elijah and Elisha reanimated by bringing the departed soul 
back into the lifeless body, nor would they have repeated the story 
that Elijah went alive into heaven. Hannah says, ‘The Lord killeth 
and maketh alive;’ Isaiah declares‘The dead shall live, my dead bod¬ 
ies shall rise;’ Hozeaand Ezekiel refer to a national resurrection which 
implies the possibility of the individual’s resurrection; and Psalms (16, 
17, 49, 73), Proverbs (12, v. 28), Job (14, v. 13-15, 49, 26, 27), Ecclesi- 
asts (12, v. 7). Judaism did not stop with the last page of the Bible. 
Judaism is a religious force penetrating the ages, and no man, no book, 
no temple, no synod, no national catastrophe and no oppression could 
ever stem or destroy it. Its final word was not spoken when Malachi 
closed his lips, and there is more than a fly-leaf between the Old and 
the New Testaments. The interim is pregnant with development, and 
many an idea that was only embryological in the Old Testament 
period, there reached a fuller and more pronounced growth. Particularly 


340 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


is this the case with the immortality idea. The Wisdom of Solomon, 
the second and fourth Books of the Maccabees, the Book of Enoch, the 
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs refer repeatedly to the hereafter. 
Josephus tells us that in the second century B. C. the doctrine of im¬ 
mortality was so prevalent that the three sects quarreled about it. 
Passages in the Targum, Midrash and Talmud, which are undeniably 
early traditions, the writings of Philo and Aristobul, the most ancient 
synagogal ritual, the oldest funeral services and funeral rites all fur¬ 
nish proof positive that a belief in immortality existed in Israel prior 
to the time of Jesus; yea, the very fact that Jesus and His apostles 
teach it in the very words of the Pharisees shows that it was from 
Israel that they derived this doctrine. Just as unanimous is the Jew¬ 
ish idea that ethics and worship must not be based on the selfish hope 
or dread of future reward or punishment. ‘Be not like servants that 
serve their master for the sake of the reward.’ Undisputed is also the 
idea that this life and its duties are not to be shunned or slighted be¬ 
cause of the other life. Man has no right to separate himself from so¬ 
ciety and seek seclusion in deserts and caves in order to acquire 
immortality. ‘This world is the vestibule to the next. Every right¬ 
eous man will be rewarded according to his own merits.’ Our life 
hereafter depends altogether upon our life here. What this fut¬ 
ure life is no one can describe. Maimonides sums it all up when he 
says: ‘In the future world there is nothing corporal; everything is 
spiritual. There is no eating and no drinking, no standing and no sit¬ 
ting;’ hence no local heaven or hell. P'uture joy is all spiritual joy, 
the happiness that comes from wisdom and good deeds; future pain 
is all spiritual pain, the remorse for ignorance and wickendess. The 
joy is eternal, because goodness is eternal; the pain is temporal, be¬ 
cause ‘God will not contend forever, neither will He retain His anger 
to eternity.’ The Jews never taught the eternity of suffering and chas¬ 
tisement. They know naught or endless retributive suffering. An 
eternal hell-fire was alien to them. But‘the pious of all nations of the 
world will inherit future bliss,’ whether they are Jews or non-Jews.” 

The Function o £ Prayer according to Jewish Doctrine, by Rabbi 
Isaac S. Moses, of Chicago: “To understand the character of a relig¬ 
ion, one must study its prayers; to know the nature of a religious 
community, one must enter into the sacred precinct of their liturgy. 
Were today the history of Israel wiped out from the memory of men, 
were even the Bible to be obliterated from the literature of the world, 
the student of the science of comparative religion could reconstruct 
from a few pages of the Jewish prayer book the lofty faith of Israel, 
the grandeur of his moral teachings, and the main points of his historic 
career. What kind of men were they who would pray every morning: 
‘Be praised, O God, King of the world, who hast not made me a slave?’ 
They certainly had no reference to the poor creature bought and sold 
like merchandise; for neither in old, nor in later Israel, was slavery so 
extensive, nor so abject as to call forth such a self-complacent bene¬ 
diction and during the long night of persecution the position of the Jew 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


341 


was such as not to compare favorably even with that of a slave. Yet 
would he pray with grateful devotion to his Maker and rejoice that he 
had not been made a slave. Truth, or the Torah, is the second great 
element in Jewish worship. Amidst all changes of fortune, in the face 
of direst distress, even in the agony of death, the Jew would look upon 
his lot as specially favored by God; thanking Him for the great boon 
of having received the burden of the Law. In this Law and in his 
obedience to it he beholds his chief distinction, or election, before all 
other nations. 

“ The law, is however, but the outward expression and exemplifica¬ 
tion of the deeper truth which is the center and soul of Jewish thought 
and life, the existence of the One God. This truth is no mere theo¬ 
logical postulate; it is an ethical movement; for the declaration of the 
oneness of God necessarily produces the idea of the oneness of 
humanity, or the brotherhood of man. ‘ Thou shaft love the Lord, 
thy God ’ and ‘ thou shalt love thy fellowman as thyself,’ are only 
two different forms of expressing the same thought. In this thought, 
lies the mission of Israel. 

“ To freedom, law and truth, is added a fourth element of worship, 
love, love to God and love to man. Among no other class of people 
has the sentiment of love found such a rich expression as among the 
jews; an expression not in words but in deeds. Filial love and rever¬ 
ence, honor and obedience, conjugal love and fidelity, brotherly love 
and charity, are virtues to which the Jew has furnished the noblest 
illustration. From the depth of such a sentiment rose that portion of 
the service which, because of its importance is called ‘ The Prayer,’ 
It is unique in form and sublime in its suggestiveness: ‘ Praised be 
Thou our God, and God of our fathers,” our fathers’ God—this expres¬ 
sion is the noblest testimony to the tender and grateful heart of the 
Jew — ‘Thou art great, mighty and awe-inspiring, O God Most 
High.’ 

“The function of prayer is not to persuade God by our hymns and 
praises into granting us favors, but an opportunity for a man to learn 
to subject his will to the will of God; to strive after truth, to enrich 
his heart with love for humanity, to ennoble the soul with the long¬ 
ing after righteousness. They who are wont to decry the Jew as selfish, 
narrow, exclusive, should reflect upon this prayer: 

‘“O God, let the fear of Thee extend over all Thy works, and 
reverence for Thee fill all creatures, that they may all form one band 
and do Thy will with an upright heart, so that all manner of wicked¬ 
ness shall cease, and the dominion of the presumptuous shall be re¬ 
moved from the earth.’ 

“Still more clearly is this idea of the brotherhood of all men ex¬ 
pressed in the concluding prayer of every service: ‘ It behooves us to 
render praise and thanksgiving unto the Creator of heaven and earth 
who has delivered us from the darkness of error and sent to us the 
light of His truth. Therefore we hope that all superstition will speedily 
pass away, all wickedness cease and the kingdom of God be established 


342 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


on earth; then will the Lord be King over all the earth; on that day 
shall God be acknowledged One and His name be One.’ 

“ The modern, liberal Jew, who has discarded from his heart as well 
as his liturgy all longing for a national restoration, but considers his 
native or adopted land his Palestine, still feels the moral responsibility 
for the sins of all his brethren in faith, but this feeling does not carry 
with it the thought of divine punishment. According to Jewish con¬ 
ception, man is responsible only for his own sins; forgiveness of sin 
can be obtained only by thorough repentance. The Jewish worshiper 
feels ‘there is no wall of separation between God and man.’ In him 
lives the consciousness of being a child of God. 

“In all these prayers and supplications no reference is found to 
future punishment or reward; no dread of everlasting torment over¬ 
shadows the Jewish mind; no selfish longing for eternal pleasures is 
incentive to his repentance.” 

The Historians of Judaism in the Nineteenth Century, by Rabbi 
E. Schreiber, of Toledo, Ohio: “The Jew started on his sad pilgrimage 
of the Middle Ages, but he was permitted to erect only tottering huts. 
What he built yesterday he had to tear down today. Yet, however 
short his stay in a country, he never neglected to till the spiritual soil 
and to sow spiritual seeds. Many historians of our century make the 
grave mistake of dwelling too much on the persecution and oppression 
of the Jews, and of not paying greater attention to the brighter side of 
the picture—that while the Jew was oppressed, the spirit of Judaism • 
could not be suppressed. Too many historians make of our history 
simply a vale of sorrow, a tragedy, a tear-stained romance. We do not 
care for the pity of the world; we challenge its admiration, ask for a 
just appreciation of the genius of Judaism, which was strong enough 
to endow the hunted Jew with the faculty of taking deep root even in 
the spirit and character of that country in which his lot was tem¬ 
porarily cast.” 

The Share of the Jewish People in the Culture of the Various 
Nations and Ages, by Prof. Gotthard Deutsch, of Cincinnati, who elabo¬ 
rated, with much attention to details, the thought of the preceding 
speaker. “The Jews gave to the world the Bible, which has found its 
way into the thoughts, sentiments and institutions of all civilized men. 
Christianity, as it was developed during the first century, derived its 
doctrines, thoughts and forms of expression from rabbinical Judaism, 
and in this garb Judaism has conquered the civilized world. Even the 
original part of Christianity, the combination of the Logos with the 
Jewish national Messianic idea, was the result of Jewish-Alexandrian 
philosophy. The Jews were the carriers of Greek learning to Europe. 
They were the pioneers in Bible criticism. They furnished the weapons 
for the Protestant reformation, enriched philosophy with the thoughts 
of Spinoza and Mendelssohn, and occupy a prominent place in modern 
art, music, drama, literature, journalism, science, philosophy, history, 
exploration, statesmanship and finance.” 

The Contribution of the Jews to the Preservation of the Sciences 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


343 


m the Middle Ages, by Rabbi Samuel Sale, of St. Louis, still further 
elaborates this theme: “The religion of the Jews contains no ideas 
that run counter to universal experience and common sense, and 
therefore it does not quail before the inexorable consequences of ex¬ 
act science. It has never set an interdict on free thought and always 
admitted of the greatest possible latitude in the exercise of reason. 
It hails every discovery of the exact sciences, even the most startling, 
as the sublimest revelation, destined to break down the obstacles and 
partition walls of sectarian prejudice and superstition, and by leveling 
the artificial barriers which dogmatists have set up, to prepare the 
way for the ultimate realization of the grand ideal of its prophets, the 
fraternization of all men upon the solid basis of justice and love. The 
Jews were the first to raise Bible criticism to the dignity of an inde¬ 
pendent branch of research, without which the Protestant Reformation 
would not have been possible. Most of the rabbis of the Middle Ages 
were physicians, and until the end of the seventeenth century, medi¬ 
cine and the natural sciences had not parted company. There was no 
branch of inquiry that did not claim their attention and devotion, and 
so eager were they in search of knowledge that they traversed all 
countries to find it. 

The Christian schools of the Middle Ages resounded with the 
praises of a philosopher celebrated as one of the profoundest thinkers, 
whose views they feared to refute, and oftener adopted as their own, 
Avicebron, or Ibn Gabirol, the author of the ‘Fountain of Life,’ a 
Jew who was the first to give a lasting incentive and influence to the 
philosophic thought of the Middle Ages. Moses Maimonides, too, ex¬ 
ercised a powerful influence not only upon the medical philosophers, 
but also upon Leibnitz, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel. 

“The Jews have never been mere idle recipients of the liberal cult¬ 
ure of others, but they have always been eager and earnest co-workers 
in every realm and department of knowledge. If the Jews of the Mid¬ 
dle Ages have not been awarded sufficient recognition for the impor¬ 
tant part they have enacted in the enlargement and preservation of the 
sciences, it is due to the systematic and stupid attempts to suppress 
them and keep them and their religion in the background. The fail¬ 
ure to give them their full measure of desert is but another colossal 
exemplification of the willingness with which men forget their bene¬ 
factors. 

Synagogue and Church in their Mutual Relations, particularly in 
reference to the Ethical Teachings, by Rabbi K. Kohler, of New 
York: “The synagogue and church represent but the prismatic hues 
and shades, refractions of the same divine light of truth. Working in 
different directions and spheres they supplement and complete one 
another, while fulfilling the great providential mission of building up 
the kingdom of truth and righteousness on earth. Moses ben Maimon 
and Juda Halevi declared that both Jesus and Mohammed (church and 
mosque) are God’s great apostles to the heathen, intrusted with the 
task of bringingthe nations of the West and the East ever nearer to God, 



Rabbi G, Gottheil, New York 






THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


345 


the universal Father. The synagogue holds the key to the mysteries 
of the church, which is flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit. Jesus 
and His apostles were both in their life and teaching Jews. From the 
Jewish synagogue they caught the holy fire of inspiration to preach 
the coming of the kingdom of heaven, for which they had learned to 
pray, while sending up their daily incense of devotion to the ‘ Father 
in heaven.’ 

“Jesus was a true son of the synagogue. There was no reason why 
He should antagonize the teachings of the synagogue any more than 
John the Baptist did. When asked what He took to be the foremost 
commandment, He began like any Jew with the ancient watchword, 

4 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ and then He declared as the 
next one, ‘ Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ And from His own lips we 
have the declaration, ‘ Think not that I came to destroy the Law or the 
Prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.’ There was no reason 
for the Jewish people at large, nor for the leaders of the synagogue, 
to bear Him any grudge, or to hate the noblest and most lofty-minded 
of all the teachers of Israel. It was the anti-Semitism of the second 
century church that cast the guilt upon the Jew and his religion. Jesus 
died a true Essene Jew, and the followers of Jesus were perfect Jews 
themselves. 

“The church, pointing to the temple ruins as the death warrant of 
ancient Israel, became aggressive; the synagogue was pushed into 
defensive, scattered and torn into shreds. The church became the 
oppressor, the Jew the martyr; the church the devouring wolf; Israel 
the lamb led to slaughter, the man of sorrow from whose wound the 
balm of healing was to flow for the nations. 

“There are three radical defects in the church. Salvation is made 
dependent on creed; to be a true follower of Christ life must be 
shaped after the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, which means 
renouncing wife, wealth and comfort, offering no resistance to acts of 
injustice and forgetting the claims of home and country, state and 
society; and human gaze is shifted from this life to the life beyond the 
grave. Against these views the synagogue has ever protested, and in 
the great battle between Christian and Moslem, between faith and 
reason, the Jew stood all through the ages pointing to a higher justice, 
a broader love, ever waiting and working for the larger brotherhood 
of man. While standing in defense of his own disputed rights, the 
Jew helped, and still helps, in the final triumph of the cause, not of a 
single sect, or race, or class, but of humanity; in the establishing of 
freedom of thought and of conscience, in the unfolding of perfect man¬ 
hood, in the rearing of the kingdom of justice and love, in which all 
creeds and nationalities, all views and pursuits blend like the rainbow 
colors of the one bright light of the sun.” 

The Position of Woman among the Jews, by Rabbi Max 
Landsberg, of Rochester, N. Y., “showed that the position assigned 
to woman in the Biblical history of her creation, is expressed in 


346 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


such an exalted manner that not only all conceptions of antiquity 
are put in the shade by it, but the highest civilization yet attained 
cannot conceive of a more sublime ideal. There is a perfect equality 
of man and woman; yea, the Bible does not say that woman, the 
physically weaker one, shall leave her father and mother and cling to 
her husband; but man, the physically stronger one, shall cling to his 
wife, who in a high condition of humanity is morally and ethically his 
superior. A wealth of sentiment so universally ascribed to modern 
ideas is contained in this ancient Hebrew thought. It furnishes the 
key-note for the exalted position of woman among the Jews, so 
strangely exceptional in practical equality, chastity, dignity, domestic 
affection, religious power and moral influence when compared with 
that of all the ancient and modern nations. Today Jewish woman 
has the same religious rights and obligations in the synagogue that 
man has, and she is a most powerful factor in the promotion of Jewish 
religious life and sentiment.” 

The Development of Religious Ideas in Judaism since Moses 
Mendelssohn, by Rabbi G. Gottheil, of New York: “ Reformed Juda¬ 
ism did not begin as a revolt from ecclesiastical oppression; it was not 
a deflection from the creed on which the synagogue is built; it was 
life itself that demanded a reform. Problems deeper far and more 
vital soon came to the surface. The Israelite should not be placed in 
the dilemma of either foregoing the full enjoyment of his civil rights 
or forswearing his religion, but just as little should he profess doctrines 
or practice rites which he had ceased to believe in, or which conflicted 
with his own widened sentiments. 

“ The Bible, the Talmud and all the rabbinical enactments are the 
product of the genius of the Jews for religious life. They are for 
guidance, not for domination over the spirit. We are no longer 
answerable, because we hold to the Old Testament for everything the 
book contains concerning the nature of God, or His providence, or His 
justice, or in regard to the soul, or our duties to men, or the rights of 
the Gentiles; we place them at their historical value. Neither can they 
hinder us from receiving light and inspiration from other sources. 
Under the influence of these reform principles, the following are the 
most notable changes that have come to pass: 

“First. The unity of God, that chief corner-stone of Judaism, is 
conceived of more in its inclusive than exclusive bearing; it is no 
longer, as it has been, a cause of separation and estrangement from 
people of other faiths, but the opposite, for seeking their fellowship 
and cooperation in all things good, true and right. The one Father 
in heaven enjoins upon us the obligation of seeking to bring all His 
human children into the bonds of a common brotherhood. 

“Second. The idea of a ‘ chosen people ’ has for us no other 
meaning than that of a people commissioned to do a certain work 
among men; it implies in our sense no inherent superiority of race 
or descent, least of all of preference and favoritism in heaven. The 
word that came from the Jewish mind thousands of years ago, ‘God 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


847 


is no respector of persons,’ is not contravened by us either in our 
belief or in our prayers, or in our feelings toward non-Jews, and that 
other word from the same source, “ Love thy neighbor as thyself,” 
forbids us to countenance the least restriction of right or of duty 
based on a difference of race, station, culture or religion. 

“ Third. Palestine is venerable to us as the ancient home of our 
race, the birthplace of our faith, the land where our seers saw visions 
and our bards sang their holy hymns; but it is no longer our country 
in the sense of ownership; that title appertains to the land of our 
birth or adoption. 

“Fourth. The worship of prayer and praise, and of the devout 
reading of the Scriptures, had already won the affections of the Jewish 
people a century and more before our common era, in the regions of 
the diaspora, long before that time. The people’s meeting house or 
synagogue, that glorious creation of the rabbis, as Claude Montefiore 
calls it, the venerable mother of every church or mosque on earth, of 
St. Peter in Rome as St. Paul in London and the Sadsh in India, be¬ 
came the real temple, and the pious and informed leader in devotion, 
the priest of the future. The adoption of the name ‘temple’ for our 
houses of prayer, in preference of ‘synagogue,’ is one of the land¬ 
marks of the new era. It is a public avowal, and, as it were, official 
declaration that our final separation from Palestine and Jerusalem has 
deprived us of nothing we cannot have wherever we gather together 
for the worship of the One and only true God and the study of His 
will. 

Fifth. The tragic question of the Messiah has ceased to be a 
question for us; it has been answered once for all, and in such wise 
that we have no controversy on that point with any creed or church. 
Has come, is to come, or to come again, all difference in time has be¬ 
come obsolete to us, by the adoption of the present tense: Messiah 
is coming, has been coming in all past ages; as one of the Talmudists 
distinctly taught, ‘ Messiah’s days are from Adam until now.’ 

“ Sixth. With this development of the Messianic idea came the 
change in the conception of Israel’s dispersion. We deplore no more 
our dispersion, wish for no ingathering. Where God has scattered us, 
there also is His vineyard into which we are called as laborers.” 

Judaism and the Modern State, by Rabbi David Philipson, of 
Cincinnati, Ohio: “ He affirmed that the Jews do not consider them¬ 
selves a nation, but a religious community which expects no Messiah, 
and desires not to return to Palestine. They are Jews in religion only, 
citizens of their Fatherland, whatever or wherever it maybe, in all that 
pertains to the public weal. Judaism discountenances the connection 
of church and state; each shall attend to its own. Judaism teaches its 
confessors that if any contingency should arise in which the religion 
would be in conflict with the state, the religion must take the second 
place, for we recognize no power within a power. 



The Annunciation. 




























CHRISTIANITY. 




Christianity. 



HE two names, Jesus Christ , are not analogous to a 
modern Christian name and surname; in reality, 
the Great Being so designated had but one per- 
IC sonal appellation—Jesus; Christ being super- 
added at a later period to designate His office, 
function, or mission. Jesus, Gr. Iesous, is the 
equivalent of the Heb. Yehoshua , i. e ., Joshua, 
meaning Jehovah-Savior, Deliverer, or Helper. 
It was borne by the military leader in the wars 
of Canaan (Josh. i.,xxiv., actually called Jesus 
in the authorized version of Acts vii., 45, and 
Heb. iv.,8), by Jesus surnamed Justus, a fellow- 
laborer with Paul (Col. iv., n), and by about a 
dozen other persons figuring in the pages of 
Josephus; in fact, the name seems to have been 
not uncommon among the Jews. But we learn from St. Matthew that 
in this particular case the appellation was given previous to birth by 
Divine authority. “ . . . thou shalt call His name Jesus , for He 

shall save His people from their sins.” The year, the month, and the 
day when the child Jesus was born are matters of more or less uncer¬ 
tainty, not having been recorded with precision at the time. The 
salient features, however, of the life thus begun were narrated by four 
evangelists, who are believed by the immense majority of Christians 
to have written with infallible accuracy and trustworthiness under the 
guidance or inspiration of the Spirit of God. 

The circumstances heralding or attendant upon the birth of John, 
afterward the Baptist, and the miraculous conception and nativity of 
Jesus, the last-named event at Bethlehem, are told at length by St. 
Luke (Luke i.-ii.); while St. Matthew relates the visit of the Magi, 
the slaughter of the infants at Bethlehem, and the flight of the holy 
family to Egypt (Matt. ii.). 

These occurrences took place while Augustus, the second Roman 
Emperor, was upon the throne (Luke ii., 1). Thirty years later, under 
the reign of Tiberius, John, now grown to full manhood, appeared in 
the wilderness of Judea, as an ascetic and preacher of repentance, the 
necessity of which he urged on the ground that the kingdom of heaven 
was at hand. Those who confessed their sins he baptized in the river 
Jordan, and thus a new religious community arose, separated to a 
certain extent from the ordinary professors of Judaism. (Matt, iii., 
I—IO; Luke iii., 1-14). Some suspected that he might be the “Christ” 

351 




352 


THE RELIGIONS OF I HE WORLD. 


or “ Messiah ” of ancient prophecy, but he disclaimed the honor, indi¬ 
cating that he was but the forerunner of another who should baptize 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire, that is, as with fire. (Matt, iii., 
ii, 12; Luke iii., 16; John i., 20-23.) 

Meanwhile Jesus, now about thirty years of age, had come forth 
from the obscurity in which He had hitherto resided at Nazareth. 
(Luke ii., 51; iii., 23.) Having sought and obtained baptism from John, 
with divine recognition as the Son of God, and having overcome temp¬ 
tation in the wilderness, He without further delay addressed Himself 
to His life-work in the world. (Matt, iii., 13-17; iv., 1-11; Luke iii., 21, 
22; iv. 1—14.) He claimed to be the Messiah spoken of by holy men of 
old (Dan. ix., 25, 26, etc.), nay more, to be, in one sense, the subordi¬ 
nate (John x., 29), and in another the equal of His Heavenly Father 
(v. 30). His ministry, while not ignoring repentance (Lukexiii., 3-5), 
was one chiefly of faith (John iii., 14-19) and love (John xiii., 34; Matt, 
v., 43-46). Twelve apostles (Matt, x.,1-6), and afterward seventy other 
disciples, were chosen to aid Him in His ministry (Lukex., 1, etc.), the 
former baptizing converts as they arose (John iv., 2). John the Baptist 
saw his own reputation pale away under the greater glory of his Divine 
successor, but never allowed this to evoke jealousy within his breast 
(Matt, iii., 11; Luke iii., 15; John i., 15, 27, 29; iii., 28-31), and when his 
faithfulness in reproving sin, even in high places, led to his suffering a 
martyr’s death (Matt, xiv., 3-12), his baptized followers, either at once 
or gradually, transferred themselves to Jesus (John i., 35-37; Acts 
xix., 1-5). 

The latter holy teacher thus left alone, continued His ministry, it 
is believed, for about three years in all, chiefly at Capernaum and other 
places near the Lake of Galilee (Matt, iv., 13; Luke vii., 1), as well as 
in other places of that province (Luke vii., 11, etc.; Matt, xvi., 13), in 
Perea beyond Jordan (Matt, xix., 1; Mark x., 1; Luke viii., 37), in 
Samaria ( Johniv., 1-42), beyond the Holy Land in Phenicia (Mark vii., 
24), and chiefly on occasions of the great festivals, at Jerusalem, which 
necessitated His visiting other parts of Judea (Matt, xx., 29; John ii., 
23; vii., 1, 2, 10). He supported His claims to be the Messiah by 
miracles of knowledge, i. e., prophecies (Matt, xx., 19, etc.; Luke xix., 
41-44) and miracles of power, such as healing the sick (Matt, ix., 35, 
etc.), nay, even raising the dead (Mark v., 22-43; Luke viii., 41-56; 
John xi., 1—14). 

The chief priests and other dignitaries who held sway in the Jew¬ 
ish synagogues were stirred up nearly to madness by jealousy of His 
success, and eagerly accepted the offer of an unworthy apostle, Judas 
Iscariot (i. e., apparently of Kerioth in Judea) to betray his Lord. A 
manufactured charge of blasphemy led to the condemnation of Jesus 
by His deadly foe, the high priest, but as the power of life and death 
now rested not with the Jewish authorities, but with the Roman 
governor, Pontius Pilate, a charge of disaffection to the imperial gov¬ 
ernment was manufactured, as it was felt that the heathen Roman 
would not attach any weight to the alleged blasphemy. The pro¬ 
curator had discernment to see clearly that what he was required to 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


353 


do was to sanction a judicial murder, and for some time refused to 
become partner in the Jewish ruler’s guilt. But as the cry, “ Crucify 
him!” “ Crucify him!” continued to rise from the multitude, he resolved 
to avoid unpopularity at the expense of moral principle, and gave 
sentence that it should be as the Jews required. The crucifixion, 
therefore, took place (Matt, xxvii.; Mark xv.; Luke xxiii.; John xix.). 
Friday was the day when the nefarious deed was done, and three days 
later, or early on Sunday morning, news was brought to the apostles, 
and the church generally, by certain women of their company who 
had visited the sepulchre, that a resurrection had taken place (Matt, 
xxviii.; Mark xvi.; Luke xxiv.; John xx., xxi.). At a subsequent 
interview with their risen Lord He gave the apostles and their suc¬ 
cessors a commission to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt, 
xxviii., 19, etc.); and about forty days after the crucifixion He led 
them out as far as Bethany and lifted up His hands and blessed them. 
“And it came to pass while He blessed them, He was parted from 
them and carried up into heaven” (Luke xxiv., 50, 51). He had pre¬ 
dicted His cruel death, His resurrection on the third day (Matt, xx., 
19), and His ascension (John xx., 17), and had intimated that at a 
future period He would again return to the earth in glory (Matt, 
xxvi., 64, etc.). 

Christ: Personal appearance: In the days of Christ it was a cus¬ 
tom of the Roman governors of Judea to keep the government of 
Rome well informed on all important events. One of the letters sent 
to the senate of Rome by Publius Lentulus in the days of Tiberius 
Caesar, is said to have been largely concerned about Jesus Christ, the 
new Prophet of Truth. The letter is very interesting on account of 
the description it gives of the personal appearance of Jesus Christ. 
It runs thus: 

“Conscript Fathers: There appeared in these our days a man of 
great virtue, named Jesus Christ, who is now living among us. Of the 
Gentiles he is accepted as a Prophet of Truth; but his own disciples 
call him the Son of God. He raiseth the dead and cureth all man¬ 
ner of diseases. A man of stature somewhat tall and comely, with a 
very reverend countenance, such as beholders may both love and fear. 
His hair is of the color of a filbert fully ripe, plain to the ears, whence 
downward it is more orient of color, somewhat curled and waved 
about his shoulders. In the midst of his head is a seam or partition of 
his hair, of the manner of the Nazarites. His forehead is smooth and 
delicate, his face without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a comely red; 
his nose and mouth exactly formed; his beard thick, the color of his 
hair, not of any great length, but forked; his look innocent; his eyes 
gray, clear and quick; in reproving, terrible; in administering, courte¬ 
ous; in speaking, very modest and wise; in proportion of body, well 
shaped. None have ever seen him laugh, but many have seen him 
weep, a man for his singular beauty surpassing the children of men.” 


23 






Jesus of Nazareth 
























Xhe |Vl essage of (Christianity to Qther 

Religions. 

By Rev. JAMES S. DENNIS, of New York. 



HRISTIANITY must speak in the name of God. 
To Him it owes its existence, and the deep 
secret of its dignity and power is that it reveals 
Him. It would be effrontery for it to speak 
simply upon its own responsibility, or even in 
the name of reason. It has no philosophy of 
evolution to propound. It has a message from 
God to deliver. It is not itself a philosophy; 
it is a religion. It is not earth-born; it is God- 
wrought. It comes not from man, but from 
God, and is intensely alive with His power, alert 
with His love, benign with His goodness, radiant 
with His light, charged with His truth, sent with 
His message, inspired with His energy, regnant 
with His wisdom, instinct with the gift of spir¬ 
itual healing and mighty with supreme authority. 

It has a mission among men, whenever or wherever it finds 
them, which is as sublime as creation, as marvelous as spiritual 
existence, and as full of mysterious meaning as eternity. It 
finds its focus, and as well its radiating center, in the personality of its 
great Revealer and Teacher, to Whom, before His advent, all the fin 
gers of light pointed; and from Whom, since His incarnation, all the 
brightness of the day has shone. It has a further and supplemental 
historic basis in the Holy Scriptures, which God has been pleased to 
give through inspired writers chosen and commissioned by Him. 

Its message is much more than Judaism; it is infinitely more than 
the revelation of nature. It has wrought in love, with the touch of 
regeneration, with the inspiration of prophetic vision, in the mastery 
of spirit control, and by the transforming power of the divine indwell¬ 
ing, until its own best evidence is what it has done to uplift and purify 
wherever it has been welcomed among men. 

I say welcomed, for Christianity must be received in order to ac- 


5 


355 



356 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


complish its mission. It is addressed to the reason and to the heart of 
man, but does no violence to liberty. Its limitations are not in its own 
nature, but in the freedom which God has planted in man. It is not to 
be judged, therefore, by what it has achieved in the world except as 
the world has voluntarily received it. Where it is now known, and 
where it has been ignored and rejected, it withholds the evidence of 
its power, but where it has been accepted it does not shrink from the 
test, but rather triumphs in its achievements. Its attitude toward 
mankind is marked by gracious urgency, not compulsion; by gentle 
condescension, not pride; by kindly ministry, not harshness; by faith¬ 
ful warning, not taunting reproaches; by plain instruction, not argu¬ 
ment; by gentle and quiet command, not noisy harangue; by limitless 
promises to faith, not spectacular gifts to sight. 

It has a message of supreme import to man, fresh from the heart 
of God. It records the great spiritual facts of human history; it an¬ 
nounces the perils and needs of men; it reveals the mighty resources 
of redemption; it solves the problems and blesses the discipline of life; 
it teaches the whole secret of regeneration and hope and moral tri¬ 
umph; it brings to the world the co-operation of divine wisdom in the 
great struggle with the dark mysteries of misery and suffering. Its 
message to the world is so full of quickening inspiration, so resplend¬ 
ent with li ght, so charged with power, so effective in its ministry that 
its mission can be characterized only by the use of the most majestic 
symbolism of the natural universe. It is indeed the “sun of righteous¬ 
ness arising with healing in his wings.” 

We are asked now to consider the message of Christianity to other 
religions. If it has a message to a sinful world, it must also have a 
message to other religions which are seeking to minister to the same 
fallen race and to accomplish in their own way and by diverse meth¬ 
ods the very mission God has designed should be Christianity’s privi¬ 
lege and high function to discharge. 

Let us seek now to catch the spirit of that message and to indi¬ 
cate in brief outline its purport. We must be content simply to give 
the message; the limits of this paper forbid any attempt to vindicate 
it, or to demonstrate its historic integrity, its heavenly wisdom, and 
its excellent glory. 

Its spirit is full of simple sincerity, exalted dignity and sweet un¬ 
selfishness. It aims to impart a blessing, rather than to challenge a 
comparison. It is not so anxious to vindicate itself as to confer its 
benefits. It is not so solicitous to secure supreme honor for itself as 
to win its way to the heart. It does not:\seek to taunt, to disparage or 
humiliate a rival, but rather to subdue by love, attract by its own ex¬ 
cellence and supplant by virtue of its own incomparable superiority. 
It is itself incapable of a spirit of rivalry, because of its own indis¬ 
putable right to reign. It has no use for a sneer, it can dispense with 
contempt, it carries no weapons of violence, it is not given to argu¬ 
ment, it is incapable of trickery or deceit, and it repudiates cant. It 
relies ever upon its own intrinsic merit and bases all its claims on its 
right to be heard and honored. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


357 


Its miraculous evidence is rather an exception than a rule. It 
was a sign to help weak faith. It was a concession made in the spirit 
of condescension. Miracles suggest mercy quite as much as they an¬ 
nounce majesty. When we consider the unlimited scope of divine 
power, and the ease with which signs and wonders might have been 
multiplied in bewildering variety and impressiveness, we are conscious 
of a rigid conservation of power and a distinct repudiation of the 
spectacular. Ihe mystery of Christian history is the sparing way in 
which Christianity has used its resources. It is a tax upon faith, 
which is often painfully severe, to note the apparent lack of energy 
and dash and resistless force in the seemingly slow advances of our 
holy religion. 

Doubtless God had His reasons, but in the meanwhile we cannot 
but recognize in Christianity a spirit of mysterious reserve, a marvelous 
patience, of subdued undertone, of purposeful restraint. It does not 
“cry, nor lift up, nor cause its voice to be heard in the street.” Cent¬ 
uries come and go and Christianity touches only portions of the earth, 
but wherever it touches it transfigures. It seems to despise material 
adjuncts, and count only those victories worth having which are won 
through spiritual contact with the individual soul. Its relation to 
other religions has been characterized by singular reserve, and its prog¬ 
ress has been marked by an unostentatious dignity which is in 
harmony with the majestic attitude of God, its author, to all false gods 
w r ho have claimed divine honors and sought to usurp the place which 
was His alone. 

We are right, then, in speaking of the spirit of this message as 
wholly free from the commonplace sentiment of rivalry, entirely above 
the use of spectacular or meretricious methods, infinitely removed 
from all mere devices or dramatic effect, wholly free from cant or 
double facedness, with no anxiety for alliance with worldly power or 
social eclat, caring more for a place of influence in a humble heart 
than for a seat of power on a royal throne, wholly intent on claiming 
the loving allegiance of the soul and securing the moral transforma¬ 
tion of character, in order that its own spirit and principles may sway 
the spiritual life of men. 

It speaks, then, to other religions with unqualified frankness and 
plainness, based upon its own incontrovertible claim to a hearing. It 
has nothing to conceal, but rather invites to inquiry and investigation. 
It recognizes promptly and cordially wdiatever is worthy of respect in 
other religious systems; it acknowledges the undoubted sincerity of 
personal conviction and the intense earnestness of moral struggle in 
the case of many serious souls who, like the Athenians of old, “worship 
in ignorance;” it warns and persuades and commands, as is its right, 
it speaks, as Paul did in the presence of cultured heathenism on Mars 
Hill, of that appointed day in which the world must be judged, and of 
“that man” by whom it is to be judged; it echoes and re-echoes its 
invariable and inflexible call to repentance; it requires acceptance of its 
moral standards; it exacts submission, loyalty, reverence and humility. 


358 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


All this it does with a superb and unwavering tone of quiet insist¬ 
ence. It often presses its claim with argument, appeal and tender 
urgency, yet in it all and through it all would be recognized a clear, 
resonant, predominant tone of uncompromising insistence, revealing 
that supreme personal will which originated Christianity, and in whose 
name it ever speaks. It delivers its message with an air of untroubled 
confidence and quiet mastery. There is no anxiety about precedence, 
no undue care for externals, no possibility of being patronized, no un¬ 
dignified spirit of competition. It speaks, rather, with the conscious¬ 
ness of that simple, natural, incomparable, measureless supremacy 
which quickly disarms rivalry and in the end challenges the admira¬ 
tion and compels the submission of hearts free from malice and guile. 

This being the spirit of the message, let us inquire as to its 
purport. There is one immensely preponderating element here which 
pervades the whole content of the message—it is love for man. 
Christianity is full of it. This is its supreme meaning to the world— 
not that love eclipses or shadows every other attribute in God’s char¬ 
acter, but that it glorifies and more perfectly reveals and interprets the 
nature of God and the history of His dealings with men. The object 
of this love must be carefully noted—-it is mankind—the race con¬ 
sidered as individuals, or as a whole. 

Christianity unfolds a message to other religions which emphasizes 
this heavenly principle. It reveals therein the secret of its power and 
the unique wonder of its whole redemptive system. “ Never man 
spake like this man,” was said of Christ. Never religion spake like this 
religion, may be said of Christianity. The Christian system is con¬ 
ceived in love; it brings the provision of love to fallen man; it 
administers its marvelous functions in love; it introduces man into an 
atmosphere of love; it gives him the inspiration, the joy, the fruition 
of love; it leads at last into the realm of eternal love. While accom¬ 
plishing this end, at the same time it convicts of sin, it melts into 
humility. We who love and revere Christianity believe that it 
declares the whole counsel of God, and we are content to rest our case 
on the simple statement of its historic facts, its spiritual teachings and 
its unrivaled ministry to the world. Christianity is its own best 
evidence. 

I have sought to give the essential outline of this immortal mes¬ 
sage of Christianity by grouping its leading characteristics in a 
series of code words, which, when presented in combination, give the 
distinctive signal of the Christian religion which has waved aloft 
through sunshine and storm during all the centuries since the New 
Testament Scriptures were given to man. 

The initial word which we place in this signal code of Christianity 
is Fatherhood. This may have a strange sound to some ears, but to 
the Christian it is full of sweetness and dignity. It simply means that 
the creative act of God, so far as our human family is concerned, was 
done in the spirit of fatherly love and goodness. He created us in 
His likeness, and to express this idea of spiritual resemblance and 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


359 


tender relationship the symbolical term of fatherhood is used. When. 
Christ taught us to pray “Our Father,” He gave us a lesson which 
transcends human philosophy and has in it so much of the height and 
depth ot divine feeling that human reason has hardly dared to receive, 
much less to originate, the conception. 

A second word which is representative in the Christian message 
is Brotherhood. This exists in two senses—there is the universal 
brotherhood of man to man, as children of one father in whose like¬ 
ness the whole family is created, and the spiritual brotherhood of 
union in Christ. Here again the suggestion of love as the rule and 
sign of human as well as Christian fellowship. The world has drifted 
far away from this ideal of brotherhood; it has been repudiated in 
some quarters even in the name of religion, and it seems clear that it 
will never be fully recognized and exemplified except as the spirit of 
Christ assumes its sway over the hearts of men. 

The next code word of Christianity is Redemption. We use it 
here in the sense of a purpose on God’s part to deliver man from sin 
and to make a universal provision for that end, which, if rightly used, 
insures the result. I need not remind you that this purpose is conceived 
in love. God, as redeemer, has taken a gracious attitude toward man 
from the beginning of history, and He is “not far from every one” in 
the imminence and omnipresence of His love. Redemption is a 
world-embracing term; it is not limited to any age or class. Its 
potentiality is world-wide; its efficiency is unrestrained except as man 
limits it; its application is determined by the sovereign wisdom of 
God, its author, who deals with each individual as a possible candi¬ 
date for redemption, and decides his destiny in accordance with his 
spiritual attitude toward Christ. 

Where Christ is unknown God still exercises His sovereignty, 
although He has been pleased to maintain a significant reserve as to 
the possibility, extent and spiritual tests of redemption where trust is 
based on God’s mercy in general rather than upon His mercy as 
specially revealed in Christ. We know from His word that Christ’s 
sacrifice is infinite. God can apply its saving benefits to one who 
intelligently accepts it in faith or to an infant who receives its benefits 
as a sovereign gift, or to one who, not having known of Christ, so 
casts himself upon God’s mercy that divine wisdom sees good reason 
to exercise the prerogative of compassion and apply to the soul the 
saving power of the great sacrifice. 

Another cardinal idea in the Christian system is Incarnation. God 
clothing Himself in human form and coming into living touch with 
mankind. This He did in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a 
mighty mystery, and Christianity would never dare assert it except 
as God has taught its truth. Granted the purpose of God to reveal 
Himself in visible form to man, and He must be free to choose His own 
method. He did not consult human reason. He did not ask the ad¬ 
vice of philosophy. He did not seek the permission of ordinary laws. 
He came in His spiritual chariot in the glory of the supernatural, but 


360 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


He entered the realm of human life through the humble gateway oi 
nature. He came not only to reveal God but to bring Him into con¬ 
tact with human life. He came to assume permanent relations to the 
race. His brief life among us on earth was for a purpose, and when 
that was accomplished, still retaining His humanity, He ascended to 
assume His kingly dominions in the heavens. 

We are brought now to another fundamental truth in Christian 
teaching—the mysterious doctrine of Atonement. Sin is a fact which 
is indisputable. It is universally recognized and acknowledged. It is 
its own evidence. It is, moreover, a barrier between man and his God. 
The divine holiness and sin, with its loathsomeness, its rebellion, its 
horrid degradation and its hopeless ruin cannot coalesce in any system 
of moral government. God cannot tolerate sin or temporize with it 
or make a place for it in His presence. He cannot parley with it; He 
must punish it. He cannot treat with it; He must try it at the bar. 
He cannot overlook it; He must overcome it. He cannot give it a 
moral status; He must visit it with the condemnation it deserves. 

Atonement is God’s marvelous method of vindicating, once for 
all, before the universe, His eternal attitude toward sin by the volun¬ 
tary self-assumption in the spirit of sacrifice, of its penalty. This He 
does in the person of Jesus Christ, who came as God incarnate upon 
this sublime mission. The facts of Christ’s birth, life, death and resur¬ 
rection take their place in the realm of veritable history, and the moral 
value and propitiatory efficacy of His perfect obedience and sacrifical 
death in a representative capacity become a mysterious element of 
limitless worth in the process of readjusting the relation of the sinner 
to his God. 

Christ is recognized by God as a substitute. The merit of His 
obedience and the exalted dignity of His sacrifice are both available 
to faith. The sinner, humble, penitent and conscious of unworthiness, 
accepts Christ as his redeemer, his intercessor, his Saviour, and simply 
believes in Him, trusting in His assurances and promises, based as 
they are upon his atoning intervention, and receives from God, as the 
gift of sovereign love, all the benefits of Christ’s mediatorial work. 
This is God’s way of reaching the goal of pardon and reconciliation. 
It is His way of being Himself just and yet accomplishing the justifi¬ 
cation of the sinner. Here again we have the mystery of love in its 
most intense form and the mystery of wisdom in its most august 
exemplification. 

This is the heart of the Gospel. It throbs with mysterious love; it 
pulsates with ineffable throes of divine feeling; it bears a vital relation 
to the whole scheme of government; it is in its hidden activities 
beyond the scrutiny of human reason; but it sends the life-blood 
coursing through history and it gives to Christianity its superb vitality 
and its undying vigor. It is because Christianity eliminates sin from 
the problem that its solution is complete and final. 

We pass now to another word which is of vital importance—it is 
Character. God’s own attitude to the sinner being settled, and the 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


361 


problem of moral government solved, the next matter which presents 
itself is the personality of the individual man. It must be purified, 
transformed into the spiritual likeness of Christ, trained for immortal¬ 
ity. It must be brought into harmony with the ethical standards of 
Christ. This Christianity insists upon, and for the accomplishment of 
this end it is gifted with an influence and impulse, a potency and win¬ 
someness, an inspiration and helpfulness, which is full of spiritual 
mastery over the soul. Christianity uplifts, transforms, and eventually 
transfigures the personal character. It is a transcendent school of 
incomparable ethics. It honors the rugged training of discipline; it 
uses it freely but tenderly. It accomplishes its purpose by exacting 
obedience, by teaching submission, by helping to self-control, by 
insisting upon practical righteousness as a rule of life and by introduc¬ 
ing the golden rule as the law of contact and duty between man and 
man. 

In vital connection with character is a word of magnetic impulse 
and unique glory which gives to Christianity a sublime practical 
power in history—it is Service. There is a forceful meaning in the 
double influence of Christianity over the inner life and the outward 
ministry of its followers. Christ, its founder, glorified service and 
lifted it in His own experience to the dignity of sacrifice. In the light 
of Christ’s example service becomes an honor, a privilege and a moral 
triumph; it is consummated and crowned in sacrifice. 

Christianity, receiving its lesson from Christ, subsidizes character 
in the interest of service. It lays its noblest fruitage of personal gifts 
and spiritual culture upon the altar of philanthropic sacrifice. 

One other word completes the code—it is Fellowship. It is a word 
which breathes the sweetest hope and sounds the highest destiny of 
the Christian. It gives the grandest possible meaning to eternity, for 
it suggests that it is to be passed with God. It illumines and transfig¬ 
ures the present, for it brings God into it and places Him in living touch 
with our lives and makes Him a helper in our moral struggles, our 
spiritual aspirations and our heroic though imperfect efforts to live the 
life of duty. It is solace in trouble, consolation in sorrow, strength in 
weakness, courage in trial, help in weariness and cheer in loneliness; 
it becomes an unfailing inspiration when human nature, left to its own 
resources, would lie down in despair and die. Fellowship with God 
implies and secures fellowship with each other in a mystical spiritual 
union of Christ with His people and His people with each other. An 
invisible society of regenerate souls, which we call the kingdom of God 
among men, is the result. This has its visible product in the organized 
society of the Christian church, which is the chosen and honored 
instrument of God for the conservation and propagation of Christian¬ 
ity among men. 

This, then, is the message which Christianity signals to other 
religions as it greets them today: Fatherhood, Brotherhood, Redemp¬ 
tion, Incarnation, Atonement, Character, Service, Fellowship. 



The Late Prof. Philip Schaff. 













I he Reunion of Qhristendom. 

Paper by PROF. PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., of New York. 



HE reunion of Christendom presupposes an 
original union, which has been marred and 
obstructed, but never entirely destroyed. The 
theocracy of the Jewish dispensation contin¬ 
ued during the division of the kingdom and dur¬ 
ing the Babylonian exile. Even in the dark¬ 
est time, when Elijah thought that Israel was 
wholly given to idolatry, there were seven 
thousand—known only to God—who had never 
bowed their knees to Baal. The Church of 
Christ has been one from the beginning, and He 
has pledged to her His unbroken presence “all 
the days to the end of the world.” The one in¬ 
visible church is the soul which animates the 
divided visible churches. All true believers are members of the mys¬ 
tical body of Christ. 


The saints in heaven and those on earth 
But one communion make; 

All join in Christ, their living Head, 

And of His grace partake. 


Let us briefly mention the prominent points of unity which under¬ 
lie all divisions. 

Christians differ in dogmas and theology, but agree in the funda¬ 
mental articles of faith which are necessary to salvation; they believe 
in the same Father in heaven, the same Lord and Saviour,and the same 
Holy Spirit, and can join in every clause of the Apostles’ Creed, of 
the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum. 

They are divided in church government and discipline, but all ac¬ 
knowledge and obey Christ as the Head of the church and Chief Shep¬ 
herd of our souls. 

They differ widely in modes of worship, rites and ceremonies, but 
they worship the same God manifested in Christ, they surround the 
same throne of grace, they offer from day to day the same petitions 
which the Lord" has taught them, and can sing the same classical 
hymns, whether written by Catholic or Protestant, Greek or Roman, 

363 



364 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

( 

Lutheran or Reformed, Calvinist or Methodist, Episcopalian or Pres¬ 
byterian, Paedo-Baptist or Baptist. Some of the best hymn writers, 
such as Toplady and Charles Wesley, were antagonistic in theology; 
yet their hymns, “Rock of Ages” and “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” are 
sung with equal fervor by Calvinists and Methodists. Newman’s 
“Lead, Kindly Light” will remain a favorite hymn among Protestants, 
although the author left the Church of England and became a cardinal 
of the Church of Rome. “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” and 
“Nearer, My God, to Thee” were written by devout Unitarians, yet 
they have an honored place in every trinitarian hymnal. 

There is a unity of Christian scholarship of all creeds, which aims 
at the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This unity has 
been strikingly illustrated in the Anglo-American revision of the au¬ 
thorized version of the Scriptures, in which about one hundred British 
and American scholars—Episcopalians, Independents, Presbyterians, 
Methodists, Baptists, Friends and Unitarians, have harmoniously co¬ 
operated for fourteen years (from 1870 to 1884). 

It was my privilege to attend almost every meeting of the Ameri¬ 
can revisers in the Bible House at New York, and several meetings of 
the British revisers in the Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey, 
and I can testify that, notwithstanding the positive convictions of the 
scholars of the different communions, no sectarian issue was ever 
raised, all being bent upon the sole purpose of givingthe most faithful 
idiomatic rendering of the original Hebrew and Greek. The English 
version, in its new as well as its old form, will continue to be the 
strongest bond of union among the different sections of English- 
speaking Christendom, a fact of incalculable importance for private 
devotion and public worship. 

Formerly, exegetical and historical studies were too much con¬ 
trolled by, and made subservient to, apologetic and polemic ends; but 
now they are more and more carried on without prejudice and with 
the sole object of ascertaining the meaning of the text and the facts 
of history upon which creeds must be built. 

Finally, we must not overlook the ethical unity of Christendom, 
which is much stronger than its dogmatic unity and has never been 
seriously shaken. The Greek, the Latin and the Protestant churches, 
alike, accept the ten commandments as explained by Christ, or the 
law of supreme love to God and love to our neighbor, as the sum and 
substance of the law, and they look up to the teaching and example 
of our Saviour as the purest and most perfect model for universal 
imitation. 

Before we discuss reunion we should acknowledge the hand of 
Providence in the present divisions of Christendom. There is a great 
difference between denominationalism and sectarianism; the first is 
consistent with church unity as well as military corps are with the 
unity of an army, or the many monastic orders with the unity of the 
papacy; the second is nothing but extended selfishness and bigotry. 
Denominationalism is a blessing; sectarianism is a curse. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


365 


We must remember that denominations are most numerous in the 
most advanced and active nations of the world. A stagnant church is 
a. sterile mother. Dead orthodoxy is as bad as heresy, or even worse. 
Sects are a sign of life and interest in religion. The most important 
periods of the church, the Nicene age, and the age of the reformation, 
were full of controversy. There are divisions in the church which 
cannot be justified, and there are sects which have fulfilled their mis¬ 
sion and ought to cease. But the historic denominations are permanent 
forces and represent various aspects of the Christian religion which 
supplement each other. 

As the life of our Saviour could not be fully exhibited by one 
gospel, nor His doctrine set forth by one apostle, much less could any 
one Christian body comprehend and manifest the whole fullness of 
Christ and the entire extent of His mission to mankind. 

Every one of the great divisions of the church has had, and still 
has, its peculiar mission as to territory, race and nationality, and 
modes of operation. 

The Greek church is especially adapted to the East, to the Greek 
and Slavonic peoples; the Roman to the Latin races of southern 
Europe and America; the Protestant to the Teutonic races of the North 
and West. 

Among the Protestant churches, again, some have a special gift 
for the cultivation of Christian science and literature; others for the 
practial development of the Christian life; some are most successful 
among the higher, others among the middle, and still others among 
the lower classes. None of them could be spared without great detri¬ 
ment to the cause of religion and morality, and without leaving its 
territory and constituency spiritually destitute. Even an imperfect 
church is better than no church. 

No schism occurs without guilt on one or on both sides. “ It must 
needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense 
cometh.” Yet God overrules the sins and follies of man for His own 
glory. 

The separation of Paul and Barnabas, in consequence of their 
“sharp contention” concerning Mark, resulted in the enlargement of 
missionary labor. If Luther had not burned the pope’s bull, or had 
recanted at Worms, we would not have had a Lutheran church, but be 
still under the spiritual tyranny of the papacy. If Luther had accepted 
Zwingli’s hand of fellowship at Marburg the Protestant cause would 
have been stronger at the time, but the full development of the char¬ 
acteristic features of the two principal churches of the reformation 
would have been prevented or obstructed. 

If John Wesley had not ordained Coke we would not have & 
Methodist Episcopal church, which is the strongest denomination in 
the United States. If Chalmers and his friends had not seceded from 
the general assembly of the Kirk of Scotland in 1843, forsaking every 
comfort for the sake of the whole headship of Christ, we would miss 
one of the grandest chapters in modern church history. 


366 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


All divisions of Christendom will, in the providence of God, be 
made subservient to a greater harmony. Where the sin of schism has 
abounded, the grace of future reunion will much more abound. 

Taking this view of the division of the church we must reject the 
idea of a negative reunion, which would destroy all denominational dis¬ 
tinction and thus undo the work of the past. 

History is not like “the baseless fabric of a vision” that leaves 
“not a rack behind.” It is the unfolding of God’s plan of infinite wis¬ 
dom and mercy to mankind. He is the chief actor, and rules and over¬ 
rules the thoughts and deeds of His servants. We are told that our 
Heavenly Father has numbered the very hairs of our head, and that 
not a sparrow falleth to the ground without His will. The labors of 
confessors and martyrs, of missionaries and preachers, of fathers,school¬ 
men and reformers, and of the countless host of holy men and women 
of all ranks and conditions who lived for the good of the world, can¬ 
not be lost. They constitute a treasure of inestimable value for all the 
future time. 

Variety in unity and unity in variety is the law of God in nature, 
in history and in His kingdom. Unity without variety is dead uni¬ 
formity. There is beauty in variety. There is no harmony without 
many sounds, and a garden incloses all kinds of flowers. God has 
made no two nations, no two men or women, nor even two trees or two 
flowers alike. He has endowed every nation, every church, yea, every 
individual Christian with peculiar gifts and graces. His power, His 
wisdom and His goodness are reflected in ten thousand forms. 

“There are diversities of gifts,” says St. Paul, “but the same spirit. 
And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord. And 
there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all 
things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit 
to profit withal.” 

We must, therefore, expect the greatest variety in the church of 
the future. There are good Christians who believe in the ultimate tri¬ 
umph of their own creed, or form of government and worship, but they 
are all mistaken and indulge in a vain dream. The world will never 
become wholly Greek, nor wholly Roman, nor wholly Protestant, but 
it will become wholly Christian, and will include every type and every 
aspect, every virtue and every grace of Christianity—an endless variety 
in harmonious unity, Christ being all in all. 

Every denomination which holds to Christ the Head will retain its 
distinctive peculiarity, and lay it on the altar of reunion, but it will 
cheerfully recognize the excellencies and merits of the other branches 
of God’s kingdom. No sect has the monopoly of truth. The part is 
not the whole; the body consists of many members, and all are necessary 
to each other. 

Episcopalians will prefer their form of government as the best, 
but must concede the validity of the non-Episcopal ministry. 

Baptists, while holding fast to the primitive mode of immersion 
must allow pouring or affusion to be legitimate baptism. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


367 


Protestants will cease to regard the pope as the anti-Christ pre¬ 
dicted by St. Paul and St. John, and will acknowledge him as the 
legitimate head of the Roman church, while the pope ought to recog¬ 
nize the respective rights and privileges of the Greek patriarchs and 
evangelical bishops and pastors. 

Those who prefer to worship God in the forms of a stated liturgy 
ought not to deny others the equal right of free prayer as the spirit 
moves them. Even the silent worship of the Quakers has Scripture au¬ 
thority, for there was “ a silence in heaven for the space of half an hour.” 

Doctrinal differences will be the most difficult to adjust. When 
two dogmas flatly contradict each other, the one denying what the 
other asserts, one or the other, or both, must be wrong. Truth 
excludes error and admits of no compromise. 

But truth is many sided and all sided and is reflected in different 
colors. The creeds of Christendom, as already remarked, agree in the 
essential articles of faith and their differences refer either to minor 
points or represent only various aspects of truth and supplement one 
another. 

Calvinists and Arminians are both right, the former in maintain¬ 
ing the sovereignty of God, the latter in maintaining the freedom and 
moral responsibility of man, but they are both wrong, when they deny 
one or the other of these two truths, which are equally important, 
although we may not be able to reconcile them satisfactorily. The 
conflicting theories on the word’s Supper which have caused the 
bitterest controversies among medieval schoolmen and Protestant 
reformers turn, after all, only on the mode of Christ’s presence, while 
all admit the essential fact that He is spiritually and really present and 
partaken of by believers as the Bread of. Life from heaven. Even the 
two chief differences between Romanists and 4 Protestants concerning 
Scripture and tradition as rules of faith, and concerning faith and 
good works, as conditions of justification, admit of an adjustment by a 
better understanding of the nature and relationship of Scripture and 
tradition, of faith and works. The difference is no greater than that 
between St. Paul and St. James in their teaching on justification, and 
yet the epistles of both stand side by side in the same canon of Holy 
Scripture. 

We must remember that the dogmas of the church are earthly 
vessels for heavenly treasures, or imperfect human definitions of divine 
truths, and may be proved by better statements with the advance of 
knowledge. Our theological systems are but dim rays of the sun of truth 
which illuminates the universe. Truth first, doctrine next, dogma last. 

The reunion of the entire Catholic church, Greek and Roman, with 
the Protestant churches will require such a restatement of all the con¬ 
troverted points by both parties as shall remove misrepresentations, 
neutralize the anathemas pronounced upon imaginary heresies, and 
show the way to harmony in a broader, higher, and deeper conscious¬ 
ness in God’s truth and God’s love. 

In the heat of controversy, and in the struggle for supremacy, the 


V -- 


./• .. ' ' • 


368 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

contending parties mutually misrepresented each other’s views, put 
them in the most unfavorable light, and perverted partial truths into 
unmixed errors. Like hostile armies engaged in battle, they aimed at 
the destruction of the enemy. Protestants, in their confessions of faith 
and polemical works, denounced the pope as the “anti-Christ,” the pa¬ 
pists as “idolaters,” the Roman mass as an “accursed idolatry,” and 
the Roman church as “the synagogue of Satan” and “the Babylonian 
harlot”—all in perfect honesty, on the ground of certain misunderstood 
passages of St. Paul and St. John, and especially of the mysterious 
Book of Revelation, whose references to the persecutions of pagan 
Rome were directly or indirectly applied to papal Rome. Rome an¬ 
swered by bloody persecutions; the Council of Trent closed with a 
double anathema on all Protesant heretics, and the pope annually re¬ 
peats the curse in the holy week, when all Christians should humbly and 
penitently meet around the cross on which the Saviour died for the sins * 
of the whole world. 

When these hostile armies, after a long struggle for supremacy 
without success, shall come together for the settlement of terms of 
peace, they will be animated by a spirit of conciliation and single de¬ 
votion to the honor of the great head of the church, who is the divine 
concord of all human discords. 

The whole system of traditional orthodoxy, Greek, Latin and 
Protestant, must progress, or it will be left behind the age and lose its 
hold on thinking men. The church must keep pace with civilization, 
adjust herself to the modern conditions of religious and political free¬ 
dom and accept the established results of Biblical and historical criti¬ 
cism and natural science. God speaks in history and science as well 
as in the Bible and the church, and He cannot contradict Himself. 
Truth is sovereign and must and will prevail over all ignorance, error 
and prejudice. 

Church history has undergone of late a great change, partly in 
consequence of the discovery of lost documents and deeper research, 
partly on account of the standpoint of the historian and the new spirit 
in which history is written. 

Many documents on which theories and usages were built have 
been abandoned as untenable even by Roman Catholic scholars. We 
mention the legend of the literal composition of the Apostles’ Creed by 
the apostles, and of the origin of the creed which was attributed to 
Athanasius, though it.did not appear till four centuries after his death; 
the fiction of Constantine’s donation, the apocryphal letters of pseudo- 
Ignatius, of pseudo-Clement, of pseudo-Isidorus, and other post- 
apostolic and medieval falsifications of history, which were universally 
believed till the time of the reformation, and even down to the eight¬ 
eenth century. 

Genuine history is being rewritten from the standpoint of impartial 
truth and justice. If facts are found to contravene a cherished theory, 
all the worse for the theory; for facts are truths f and truth is of God, 
while theories are of men. 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


369 


Formerly church history was made a mere appendix to systematic 
theology, or abused and perverted for polemic purposes. The older 
historians, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, searched ancient and 
medieval history for weapons to defeat their opponents and to estab¬ 
lish their own exclusive claims. Flacius, the first learned Protestant 
historian, saw nothing but anti-Christian darkness in the Middle Ages, 
with the exception of a few scattered “testes veritatis,” and described 
the Roman church from the fifth to the sixteenth century as the great 
apostacy of prophecy. But modern Protestant historians, following 
the example of Neander, who is called '‘the father of church history,” 
regard the Middle Ages as the period of the conversion and the civili¬ 
zation of the barbarians, as a necessary link between ancient and mod¬ 
ern Christianity, and as the cradle of the reformation. 

On the other hand, the opposite type of historiography, repre¬ 
sented by Cardinal Baronius, traced the papacy to the beginning of 
the Christian era’, maintained its identity through all ages, and de¬ 
nounced the reformers as arch-heretics and the reformation as the foul 
source of revolution, war and infidelity, and of all the evils of modern 
society. But the impartial scholars of the Roman Catholic church 
now admit the necessity of the reformation, the pure and unselfish 
motives of the reformers, and the beneficial efforts of their labors 
upon their own church. 

A great change of spirit has also taken place among the historians 
of the different Protestant denominations. The early Lutheran ab¬ 
horrence of Zwinglianism and Calvinism has disappeared from the 
best Lutheran manuals of church history. The bitterness between 
Prelatists and Puritans, Calvinists and Arminians, Baptists and Paedo- 
Baptists, has given way to a calm and just appreciation. 

The impartial historian can find no ideal church in any age. It 
was a high priest in Aaron’s line which crucified the Saviour; a Judas 
was among the apostles; all sorts of sins among church members are 
rebuked in the Epistles of the New Testament; there were “many 
antichrists” in the age of St. John, and there have been many since, 
even in the temple of God. Nearly all churches have acted as perse¬ 
cutors when they had a chance, if not by fire and sword, at least by 
misrepresentation, vituperation and abuse. Por these and all other 
sins they should repent in dust and ashes. One only is pure and 
spotless, the great head of the church, who redeemed it with His 
precious blood. 

But the historian finds, on the other hand, in every age and in 
every church, the footprints of Christ, the abundant manifestations of 
His spirit, and a slow but sure progress toward that ideal church 
which St. Paul describes as “the fullness of Him who filleth all 
in all.” 

The study of church history, like travel in foreign lands, destroys 
prejudice, enlarges the horizon, liberalizes the mind, and deepens 
charity. Palestine, by its eloquent ruins, serves as a commentary on 
the life of Christ, and has not inaptly been called “ the Fifth Gospel.” 

24 


870 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


So also the history of the church furnishes the key to unlock the 
meaning of the church in all its ages and branches. 

The study of history, “ with malice toward none, but with charity 
for all,” will bring the denominations closer together in an humble 
recognition of their defects and a grateful praise for the good which 
the same spirit has wrought in them and through them. 

Important changes have also taken place in traditional opinions 
and practices once deemed pious and orthodox. 

The church in the Middle Ages first condemned the philosophy of 
Aristotle, but at last turned it into a powerful ally in the defense of 
her doctrines, and so gave to the world the Summa of Thomas 
Aquinas and the Commedia of Dante, who regarded the great Stag- 
arite as a forerunner of Christ, as a philosophical John the Baptist. 
Luther, likewise, in his wrath against scholastic theology, condemned 
“the accursed heathen Aristotle,” but Melanchthon judged differently, 
and Protestant scholarship has long since settled upon a just es¬ 
timate. 

Gregory VII, Innocent III, and other popes of the Middle Ages 
claimed and exercised the power, as vicars of Christ, to depose kings, 
to absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance, and to lay whole na¬ 
tions under the interdict for the disobedience of an individual. But no 
pope would presume to do such a thing now, nor would any Catholic 
king or nation tolerate it for a moment. 

The strange mythical notion of the ancient fathers that the Chris¬ 
tian redemption was the payment of a debt due to the devil, who had 
a claim upon men since the fall of Adam, but had forfeited it by the 
crucifixion, was abandoned after Anselm had published the more 
rational theory of a vicarious atonement in discharge of a debt due 
to God. 

The un-Christian and horrible doctrine that all unbaptized infants 
who never committed any actual transgression are damned forever 
and ever prevailed for centuries under the authority of the great and 
holy Augustin, but has lost its hold even upon those divines who de¬ 
fend the necessity of water baptism for salvation. Even high Angli¬ 
cans and strict Calvinists admit that all children dying in infancy 
are saved. 

The equally un-Christian and fearful theory and practice of relig¬ 
ious compulsion and persecution by fire and sword, first mildly sug¬ 
gested by the same Augustin and then formulated by the master theo¬ 
logian of the Middle Ages (Thomas Aquinas), who deemed a heretic, 
or murderer of the soul, more worthy of death than a murderer of the 
body, has given way at last to the theory and practice of toleration 
and liberty. . 

The delusion of witchcraft, which extended even to Puritan New 
England and has cost almost as many victims as the tribunals of the 
inquisition, has disappeared from all Christian nations forever. 

A few words about the relation of the church to natural and phys¬ 
ical science. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


371 


Protestants and Catholics alike unanimously rejected the Coperni- 
can astronomy as a heresy fatal to the geocentric account of the crea¬ 
tion in Genesis, but after a century of opposition, which culminated in 
the condemnation of Galileo by the Roman inquisition under Urban 
VIII, they have adopted it without a dissenting voice and “the earth 
still moves.” 

Similar concessions will be made to modern geology and biology 
when they have passed the stage of conjecture and reached an agree¬ 
ment as to facts. The Bible does not determine the age of the earth 
or man and leaves a large margin for- difference of opinion even on 
purely exegetical grounds. The theory of the evolution of animal life, 
far from contradicting the fact of creation, presupposes it, for every 
evolution must have a beginning, and this can only be accounted for 
by an infinite intelligence and creative will. God’s power and wisdom 
are even more wonderful in the gradual process of evolution. 

The theory of historical development, which corresponds to the 
theory of physical evolution, and preceded it, was first denounced by 
orthodox divines (within my own recollection) as a dangerous error 
leading to infidelity, but is now adopted by every historian, and is in¬ 
dorsed by Christ Himself in the twin parables of the mustard seed and 
the leaven. “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in 
the ear;” this is the order of the unfolding of the Christian life, both 
in the individual and the church. But there is another law of develop¬ 
ment no less important, which may be called the law of creative head¬ 
ships. Every important intellectual and religious movement begins 
with a towering personality which cannot be explained from ante¬ 
cedents, but marks a new epoch. 

The Bible, we must all acknowledge, is not, and never claimed to 
be, a guide of chronology, astronomy, geology, or any other science, 
but solely a book of religion, a rule of faith and practice, a guide to 
holy living and dying. There is, therefore, no room for a conflict be¬ 
tween the Bible and science, faith and reason, authority and freedom, 
the church and civilization. 

Before the reunion of Christendom can be accomplished, we must 
expect providential events, new pentecosts, new reformations—as great 
as any that have gone before. The twentieth century has marvelous 
surprises in store for the church and the world, which may surpass 
even those of the nineteenth. History now moves with telegraphic 
speed, and may accomplish the work of years in a single day. The 
modern inventions of the steamboat, the telegraph, the power of 
electricity, the progress of science and of international law (which 
regulates commerce by land and by sea and will in due time make an 
end of war), link all the civilized nations into one vast brotherhood. 

Let us consider some of the moral means by which a similar 
affiliation and consolidation of the different churches may be hastened: 

The cultivation of an irenic and Evangelical-Catholic spirit in the 
personal intercourse with our fellow Christians of other denominations. 
We must meet them on a common rather than on disputed grounds, 



372 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


and assume that they are as honest and earnest as we in the pursuit 
of truth. We must make allowance for differences in education and 
surroundings, which to a large extent account for differences of opin¬ 
ion. Courtesy and kindness conciliate, while suspicion excites 
irritation and attack. Controversy will never cease, but the golden 
rule of the most polemic among the apostles, to “ speak the truth in 
love,” cannot be too often repeated. Nor should we forget the 
seraphic description of love, which the same apostle commends above 
all other gifts and the tongues of men and angels, yea, even above 
faith and hope. 

Co-operation in Christian and philanthropic work draws men to¬ 
gether and promotes their mutual confidence and regard. Faith 
without works is dead. Sentiment and talk without union are idle 
without actual manifestation in works of charity and philanthropy. 

Missionary societies should at once come to a definite agreement 
prohibiting all mutual interference in their efforts to spread the Gospel 
at home and abroad. Every missionary of the cross should wish and 
pray for the prosperity of all other missionaries, and lend a helping 
hand in trouble. What then? Only that in every way, whether in 
pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein i rejoice, yea, 
and will rejoice. 

It is preposterous, yea, wicked, to trouble the minds of the 
heathen or of the Roman Catholic with our domestic quarrels, and to 
plant half a dozen rival churches in small towns where one or two 
would suffice, thus saving men and means. Unfortunately, the secta¬ 
rian spirit and mistaken zeal for peculiar views and customs very ma¬ 
terially interfere with the success of our vast expenditures and efforts 
for the conversion of the world. 

The study of church history has already been mentioned as an 
important means of correcting sectarian prejudices and increasing mut¬ 
ual appreciation. The study of symbolic or comparative theology is 
one of the most important branches of history in this respect, espe¬ 
cially in our country, where professors of all the creeds of Christendom 
meet in daily contact, and should become thoroughly acquainted with 
one another. 

We welcome to the reunion of Christendom all denominations 
which have followed the Divine Master and have done His work. Let 
us forgive and forget their many sins and errors and remember only 
their virtues and merits. 

The Greek church is a glorious church, for in her language have 
come down to us the oracles of God, the Septuagint, the Gospels and 
Epistles; hers are the early confessors and martyrs, the Christian 
fathers, bishops, patriarchs and emperors; hers the immortal writings 
of Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius and Chrysostom; hers the CEcumen- 
ical councils and the Nicene creed, which can never die. 

The Latin church is a glorious church; for she carried the treas¬ 
ures of Christian and classical literature over the gulf of the migra¬ 
tion of nations, and preserved order in the chaos of civil wars; she 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


373 


was the alma mater of the barbarians of Europe; she turned painted 
savages into civilized beings, and worshipers of idols into worshipers 
of Christ; she built up the colossal structures of the papal theocracy, 
the cathedrals and the universities; she produced the profound sys¬ 
tems of scholastic and mystic theology; she stimulated and patronized 
the renaissance, the printing press and the discovery of a new world; 
she still stands, like an immovable rock, bearing witness to the funda¬ 
mental truths and facts of our holy religion, and to the catholicity, 
unity, unbroken continuity, and independence of the church; and she 
is as zealous as ever in missionary enterprise and self-denying works 
of Christian charity. 

We hail the reformation which redeemed us from the yoke of spirit¬ 
ual despotism, and secured us religious liberty, the most precious of 
all liberties, and made the Bible in every language a book for all 
classes and conditions of men. 

The Evangelical Lutheran church, the first-born daughter of the 
reformation, is a glorious church, for she set the word of God above 
the traditions of men, and bore witness to the comforting truth of jus¬ 
tification by faith; she struck the keynote to thousands of sweet hymns 
in praise of the Redeemer; she is boldly and reverently investigating 
the problems of faith and philosophy, and is constantly making valu¬ 
able additions to theological lore. 

The Evangelical Reformed church is a glorious church, for she 
carried reformation from the Alps and lakes of Switzerland “to the 
end of the West” (to use the words of the Roman Clement about St. 
Paul); she furnished more martyrs of conscience in France and the 
Netherlands alone than any other church, even during the first three 
centuries; she educated heroic races, like the Huguenots, the Dutch, 
the Puritans, the Covenanters, the Pilgrim Fathers, who by the fear of 
God were raised above the fear of tyrants, and lived and died for the 
advancement of civil and religious liberty; she is rich in learning and 
good works of faith; she keeps pace with all true progress; she grapples 
with the problems and evils of modern society, and she sends the Gos¬ 
pel to the ends of the earth. 

The Episcopal church, of England, the most churchly of the 
reformed family, is a glorious church, for she gave to the English- 
speaking world the best version of the Holy Scriptures and the best 
prayer book; she preserved the order and dignity of the ministry and 
public worship; she nursed the knowledge and love of antiquity and 
enriched the treasury of Christian literature, and by the Anglo-Catholic 
revival under the moral, intellectual and poetic leadership of three 
shining lights of Oxford—Pusey, Newman and Keble—she infused new 
life into her institutions and customs and prepared the way for a better 
understanding between Anglicanism and Romanism. 

The Presbyterian church, of Scotland, the most flourishing daughtei 
Geneva—as John Knox, “ who nevei feared the face of man, was 
the most faithful disciple of Calvin—is a glorious church, for she turned 
a Darren country into a garden, and raised a pool and semi-barbaious 


374 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


people to a level with the richest and most intelligent nations; she 
diffused the knowledge of the Bible and a love of the kirk in the huts 
of the peasants as well as the palaces of the noblemen; she has always 
stood up for church order and discipline, for the rights of the laity, and 
first and last for the crown rights of King Jesus, which are above all 
earthly crowns, even that of the proudest monarch in whose dominion 
the sun never sets. 

The Congregational church is a glorious church, for she has taught 
the principle and proved the capacity of congregational independence 
and self-government based upon a living faith in Christ, without 
diminishing the effect of voluntary co-operation in the Master’s serv¬ 
ice; and has laid the foundation of New England, with its literary and 
theologieal institutions and high social culture. 

The Baptist church is a glorious church, for she has borne, and still 
bears, testimony to the primitive mode of baptism, to the purity of the 
congregation, to the separation of church and state, and the liberty of 
conscience; and has given to the world the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” of 
Bunyan, such preachers as Robert Hall and Charles H. Spurgeon, and 
such missionaries as Carey and Judson. 

The Methodist church, the church of John Wesley, Charles Wesley 
and George Whitefield—three of the best and most apostolic English¬ 
men, abounding in useful labors, the first as a ruler and organizer, the 
second as a hymnist, the third as an evangelist—is a glorious church, 
for she produced the greatest religious revival since the day of pente- 
cost; she preaches a free and full salvation to all; she is never afraid to 
fight the devil and she is hopefully and cheerfully marching on, in 
both hemispheres, as an army of conquest. 

The Society of Friends, though one of the smallest tribes in Israel, 
is a glorious society, for it has borne witness to the Inner Light which 
“lighteth every man that cometh into the world;” it has proved the 
superiority of the Spirit over all forms; it has done noble service in 
promoting tolerance and liberty, in prison reform, the emancipation 
of slaves and other works of Christian philanthropy. 

The Brotherhood of the Moravians, founded by Count Zinzendorf, 
a true nobleman of nature and of grace, is a glorious brotherhood, for 
it is the pioneer of heathen missions, and of Christian union among 
Protestant churches. It was like an oasis in the desert of German 
rationalism at home, while its missionaries went forth to the lowest 
savages in distant lands to bring them to Christ. I beheld with won¬ 
der and admiration a venerable Moravian couple devoting their lives 
to the care of hopeless lepers in the vicinity of Jerusalem. 

Nor should we forget the services of many who are accounted 
heretics. 

The Waldenses were witnesses of a pure and simple faith in times 
of superstition, and having outlived many bloody persecutions, are now 
missionaries among the descendants of their persecutors. 

The Anabaptists and Socinians, who were so cruelly treated in the 
sixteenth century by Protestants and Romanists alike, were the first to 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


375 




raise their voice for religious liberty and the voluntary principle in 
religion. 

Unitarianism is a serious departure from the trinitarian faith of 
orthodox Christendom, but it did good service as a protest against 
tritheism, and against a stiff, narrow and uncharitable orthodoxy. It 
brought into prominence the human perfection of Christ’s character 
and illustrated the effect of His example in the noble lives and devo¬ 
tional writings of such men as Channing and Martineau. It has also 
given us some of our purest and sweetest poets, as Emerson, Bryant, 
Longfellow and Lowell, whom all good men must honor and love for 
their lofty moral tone. 

Universalism may be condemned as a doctrine, but it has a right 
to protest against a gross materialistic theory of hell with all its 
Dantesque horrors, and against the once widely spread popular belief 
that the overwhelming majority of the human race, including countless 
millions of innocent infants, will forever perish. Nor shall we forget 
that some of the greatest divines, from Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, 
down to Bengel and Schleiermacher, believed in, or hoped for, the 
ultimate return of all rational creatures to the God of love, who created 
them in His own image and for His own glory. 

And coming down to the latest organization of Christian work, 
which does not claim to be a church, but which is a help to all churches 
—the Salvation Army—we hail it, in spite of its strange and abnormal 
methods, as the most effective revival agency since the days of Wes¬ 
ley and Whitefield: for it descends to the lowest depths of degradation 
and misery, and brings the light and comfort of the Gospel to the 
slums of our large cities. Let us thank God for the noble men and 
women, who, under the inspiration of the love of Christ and unmindful 
of hardship, ridicule and persecution, sacrifice their lives to the rescue 
of the hopeless outcasts of society. Truly these good Samaritans are 
an honor to the name of Christ and a benediction to a lost world.- 

There is room for all these and many other churches and societies 
in the kingdom of God, whose height and depth and length and 
breadth, variety and beauty, surpass human comprehension. 




Rev, Prof, George P. Fisher, Yale College 







Christianity a Religion of pacts 


By Prof. G. P. FISHER, D. D., of Yale College. 



N saying that Christianity is an “historical re¬ 
ligion,” more is meant, of course, than that it 
appeared at a certain date in the world’s his¬ 
tory. This is true of all the religions of man¬ 
kind, except those which grew up at times prior 
to authentic records and sprung up through a 
spontaneous, gradual process. The significance 
of the title of this paper is that, in distinction 
§ ’ from every system of religious thought or 

speculation, like the philosophy of Plato or 
^ Hegel, and from every religion which consists 
exclusively, or almost exclusively, like Moham¬ 
medanism, of doctrines and precepts, Christian¬ 
ity incorporates in its very essence facts or 
transactions on the plane of historical action. 
These are not accidents, but are fundamental in the 
religion of the Gospel. The preparation of Christianity is indissolu¬ 
bly involved in the history of ancient Israel, which comprises a long 
succession of events. The Gospel itself is, in its foundations, made up 
of historical occurrences, without which, if it does not dissolve into 
thin air, it is transformed into something quite unlike itself. More¬ 
over, the postulates of the Gospel, or the conditions which make its 
function in the world of mankind possible and rational, are likewise in 
the realm of fact, as contrasted with theoretic conviction or opinion. 
We can best illustrate and confirm the foregoing remarks by referring 
to a passage in one of the writings of the great Christian apostle, St. 
Paul. It stands at the beginning of the fifteenth chapter of his first 
epistle to the Corinthians. 

The state of the Corinthian church, disgraced as it was by con¬ 
troversies upon the relative merits of the teachers from whom they 
had received the Gospel, was the occasion which led St. Paul to bring 
out in bolder relief the essential principles of Christianity. These 
would put to flight all radical errors, and at the same time cast into the 
shade minor topics of contention. A due regard to fundamental truth 
would quell dissension. 


377 



378 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The apostle begins the passage with announcing his intention to 
describe the Gospel which he had preached to the Corinthians, which 
they had embraced, in which they stood, indeed, as a vain thing, an 
idea that none for a moment would admit. After this preface, he pro¬ 
ceeds to give a formal statement of that which constitutes the Gospel, 
and the point which challenges attention is this—that the Gospel, as 
Paul here describes it, is made up of a series of facts. 

It is the story of Jesus Christ—of His death and resurrection. And 
all the proofs to which he makes allusions are also matters of fact. 
These circumstances in the Saviour’s life were “ according to the Script¬ 
ures;” that is, in agreement with the predictions of the Old Testament. 
They are vouched for by witnesses, and the grounds of their credibility 
are stated. Not only James and Peter and the other apostles were 
still alive, but the greater part of the five hundred disciples who were 
in the company of Jesus after ITis resurrection were also living and 
could be appealed to. And, finally, he himself had been suddenly 
converted from bitter enmity, by a specific occurrence, by seeing Jesus, 
and had set about the work of a teacher, not of his own notion, but 
by the Saviour’s express command—a command to which he was not 
disobedient. 

Into this part of the passage, however, which touches on the evi¬ 
dence that satisfied Paul of the historical reality of the death and 
resurrection of Jesus, we need not here enter. We simply remark that 
the nature of these proofs accords with the whole spirit of tlie passage. 
It is more the contents of the Gospel as here given than the peculiar 
character of the evidence for the truth of it that at present calls for 
consideration. 

Christianity is distinctly set forth as a religion of facts. Be it 
observed that in asserting that Christianity is composed of facts, we 
do not mean to deny it to be a doctrine and a system of doctrine. 
These facts have all an import, a significance which can be more or less 
perfectly defined. That Christ was sent into the world is not a bare 
fact, but He was sent into the world for a purpose, and the end of His 
mission can be stated. 

The death of Jesus has certain relations to the divine administration 
and to ourselves. Thus, in the passage referred to it is said, “ He died 
for our sins,” or to procure for us forgiveness. And of all the facts of 
the Gospel, they have a theological meaning. The benefit which flows 
from them corresponds to the character and situation of men, and this 
condition in which we are placed is one that can be described in plain 
propositions. “ Sin ” is not some unknown thing, we cannot tell what, 
but is “the transgression of the law;” and the meaning of the law and 
meaning of transgression can be explained. 

Nor is there any valid objection to saying that the Gospel is a sys¬ 
tem of doctrine. These truths, of which we have just given examples, 
are not isolated and disconnected from each other, but they are related 
to one another. If we are unable in all cases to combine them and 
adjust their relations, if there are gaps in the structure not filled out, 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


379 


parts that even appear to clash, the same is true of almost every branch 
of knowledge. The physiologist, the chemist, the astronomer, will 
confess just this imperfection in their respective sciences. For who, 
for example, will pretend that he understands the human body so 
thoroughly that he has nothing to learn and no difficulties to explain? 
If all human knowledge is defective, and if, in every department of 
research barriers are set at some point to the progress of discovery, 
how unreasonable to cry out against Christian theology because the 
Bible does not reveal everything, and because everything that the Bible 
does not reveal is not yet ascertained. 

In affirming, then, that the Gospel is pre-eminently a religion of 
facts, there is no design to favor in the slightest degree the sentimental 
pietism or the indifference to objective truth, whatever form it may 
take, which would ignore theological doctrine But there is a sort of 
explanation and a sort of science which men, especially in these days, 
are prone to demand, which, from the nature of the case, is impossible; 
and the state of mind in which this demand originates is a fatal dis¬ 
qualification for receiving or even comprehending the Gospel. 

There is a disposition to overlook this grand peculiarity of Chris¬ 
tianity, that whatever is essential and most precious in it lies in the 
sphere of spirit, of freedom. We are taken out of the region of meta¬ 
physical necessity and placed among personal beings and among 
events which find their solution, and all the solution of which they are 
capable, in the free movement of the will and affections. To seek for 
an ulterior cause can have no other result than to blind us to the real 
nature of the phenomena, which we have to explain. In order to pre¬ 
sent the subject in a clear light, let me ask the reader to reflect for a 
moment on the nature of sin. Look at any act, whether committed by 
yourself or another, which you feel to be iniquitous. This verdict, 
with the self-condemnation and shame that attend it, imply that no 
good reason can be given for such an act. Much more do they imply 
that it forms no part of that natural development and exercise of our 
faculties over which we have no control. It is an act—a free act—a 
breaking away from reason and law—having no cause behind the 
sinner’s will, and admitting of no further explication. 

Do you ask why one sins? The only answer to be given is, that 
he is foolish and culpable. You strike upon an ultimate fact, and you 
will stay by that fact, but to endeavor to make it rational or inevitable 
you must deny morality, deny that sin is sin and guilt is guilt, and 
pronounce the simple belief in personal responsibility a delusion. 
What we have said of a single act of wrongdoing holds good, of 
course, of morally evil habits and principles. 

Suppose, again, an act of love and self-sacrifice. A man resolves 
to give up his life for a religious cause, or a woman, like Florence 
Nightingale, to forsake her pleasant home for the discomforts and ex¬ 
posure of a soldiers’ hospital. What shall be said of these actions? 
Why, plainly you have done with the explanation when you comeback 
to that principle of free benevolence—to the noble and loving heart— 


380 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


from which they spring. To make them links in some necessary proc¬ 
ess by which they no longer originate in the full sense of the word, 
in a free preference lying in a sphere apart from natural development 
and inevitable causation, would be an insult to the soul itself. 

Or, take a benevolent act of another kind—the forgiveness of an 
injury. A man whom you have grievously injured magnanimously 
foregoes his right to exact the penalty, though if he were to exact it 
you would have no right to complain. His forgiveness is an act, the 
beauty of which is due to its being a pre-resolve on his part, a will¬ 
ing gift, a voluntary love. The supposition of an exterior cause which 
reduces this act to a mere effect of organization or mental constitution 
or anything else destroys the very thing which you take in hand to ex¬ 
plain. And the consequence would follow if the injury which calls forth 
pardon were resolved into something besides an unconstrained, inex¬ 
cusable, unreasonable, and, in this sense, unaccountable act. 

So that in the sphere of spirit we come to facts in which we have 
to rest, there being no further science conceivable. Here the bands 
of necessity which we find in the material world, and up to a certain 
point in the operations of the human mind, have no place. We do not 
account for events here as in the material world, by going back to 
forces which evolved them and the laws which necessitated them. 
Enough that here has been a choice to sin, there has been a holy will 
and a love that flinches from no sacrifice. Our solutions are, to use 
technical language, moral, not metaphysical. 

We have to do, not with puppets moving about under the pressure 
of a blind compulsion, but with personal beings, endued with a free 
spiritual nature. 

The preceding remarks will suggest our meaning when we affirm 
that Christianity is a religion of facts. We may even go back of the 
method of solution to the first truth of religion—that of God, the Cre¬ 
ator. 

To give existence to the world was the act of a personal Being, 
who was not constrained to create but freely put forth His power, be¬ 
ing influenced by motives such as His desire to communicate good and 
increase the sum of blessedness. The existence of the will of God is 
a fact which admits of no further explication, and he who seeks to go 
behind the free will of God in quest of some anterior force, out of 
which he fancies the world to have been derived, lands in a dreamy 
pantheism, satisfying neither his reason nor his heart. 

But let us come to the Gospel itself. The starting point is in fact 
concerning our character and condition—the fact of sin, or alienation 
from fellowship with God. Refuse to look upon sin in this light, just 
as the, unperverted conscience looks upon it, and the Gospel has no 
longer any intelligible purpose. Unless sin brings a separation from 
God, with whom we ought to be in fellowship and a union with whom 
is our true life, there is no significance in the Gospel. 

Here, then, we begin not with an abstract theory or first proof of 
philosophy, but with a naked fact, which memory and consciousness 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


381 


testify to. Sin is something done. It is a hard fact, to be compared 
to the existence of a disease in the human frame, whose pains are felt 
in every nerve. And sin, be it observed, is no part of the healthy proc¬ 
ess of life, but of the process of death. 

To presume to think of it as a necessary, normal transition point 
to the true life of the soul, is to annihilate moral distinctions at a sin¬ 
gle stroke. And what is salvation regarded as the work of God? It 
is a work. It is not a form of knowledge, but* is a deed emanating 
from the love of God. It is an act of His love. Christ is a gift to the 
world. He teaches, to be sure, but He also goes about doing good, 
and rises from the dead, opening by what He does a way of reconcil¬ 
iation with God. The method of salvation is not a philosophical 
theorem, but a living friend of sinners, suffering in their behalf and 
inviting them to a fellowship with Himself. It is the reconciliation of 
an offender with the government whose laws he has broken, and with 
the Father whose house he has deserted. 

In like manner, the reception of the Gospel is not by the knowing 
faculty, moving through thought. It is rather an act of the will and 
heart. It is the acceptance of the gift. Repentance toward God and 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ are each an act, as much so as repent¬ 
ance for a wrong done an earthly friend and faith in his forgiveness. 
What is repentance? To cease to do evil and begin to do well, to 
cease to live to ourselves and to begin to live to God. And what is 
faith? It is an act of confidence by which we commit ourselves to 
another to be saved by him. When you witness the rescue of a drown¬ 
ing man, who is struggling in the waves, by some one who goes to his 
assistance, you do not call this a philosophy. Here is not a series of 
conceptions evolved from one another and resting on some ultimate 
abstraction, but here is life and action. There was distress and ex¬ 
treme peril and fear on the one side with no means of self-help; there 
was compassion, courage and self-sacrifice on the part of him who did 
the good deed. 

And the metaphysics of the matter ends when you see this. So 
it is with Christianity, though the knowledge of it is preserved in a 
book. It is not, properly speaking, a philosophy. On the contrary, 
it is made up of the actions of personal beings and of the effect of 
these upon their relations to each other. There is ill-desert, there is 
love, there is sacrifice, there is trust and sorrow for sin. The story of 
the alienation of a son from an earthly parent, of his penitence and 
return, of his forgiveness and restoration to favor, is a parallel to the 
realities which make up Christianity. 

The Gospel being thus the very opposite of speculation, being 
historical in its very foundations, being simply, as the term imports, 
the good news of a fact, everything depends upon our regarding it 
from the right point of view. For if we expect to find in the Bible 
that which the Bible does not profess to furnish, and to get from 
Christianity that which Christianity does not undertake to provide, we 
shall almost invariably be misled. Let us suppose, for example, that 


382 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


a person comes to the Bible, having previously persuaded himself that 
the verdict of conscience and the general voice of mankind respecting 
moral evil are mistaken. 

There has been no such.jar in the original creation as the doctrine 
of sin implies. There is no such perversion of the soul from its true 
destination and true life, no such violation of law as is assumed. But 
there is nothing save the regular unfolding of human nature passing 
through various stages of progress according to the primordial design. 
It seems strange that apyone who has looked into his own heart and 
looked out for a moment upon the world can hold such a notion as 
this. Yet the disbelief which presents itself in the garb of philosophy 
at the present day plants itself on this theory, that the system of things 
or the cause of things, as we experience it and behold it, is the ideal 
system. There has been no transgression in the proper sense, but 
only an upward movement from a half brute existence to civilization 
and enlightenment, the last step of advancement being the discovery 
that sin is not guilt, but a point of development, and that evil really is 
good. And the forms of unbelief which do not bring toward distinct 
theories generally approximate more or less nearly to the view just 
mentioned. The effect upon the mind of denying the simple reality of 
sin, as it is felt in the conscience, is decisive. One who embraces such 
a speculation can make nothing of Christianity, but must either reject 
it altogether or lose its real contents in the effort, to translate them 
into metaphysical notions of his own. * 

A living God, a living Christ, with a heart full of compassion, 
offering forgiveness, calling to repentance and His redemption can 
have no significance. What call for a divine interposition in a system 
already ideally perfect, with all its harmonies undisturbed ? Why break 
upon a strain of perfect music? Why give medicine to them who are 
not ill? They that are whole need not a physician. How evident that 
the failure to recognize sin as a perverse act proceeding from the will 
of the creature incapacitates one from receiving Christianity! 

Now, suppose the case of a person who abides by the plain and 
well-nigh inevitable declarations of his conscience respecting good and 
evil, and the utter hostility of one to the other. He has committed 
sin. His memory recurs in part to the occasions. Every day adds to 
the number of his transgressions. His motives have not been what 
they ought to be. A sense of unworthiness weighs him down and sep¬ 
arates him, as he feels, from fellowship with every holy being. He is 
not suffering so much from lack of knowledge. He needs light, it 
may be, but he has a profounder want, a far deeper source of distress. 
He desires something to be done for him to restore his spiritual integ¬ 
rity and take him up another plane where he can find inward peace. 

It is just the case of a child who has fallen under the displeasure 
of a parent and under the stains of conscience. The want of the soul 
in this situation is life. The cry is: “Oh, wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me?” We will not stop to inquire whether this state 
of feeling represents the truth or not; but suppose it to exist, how will 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


a man, thus feeling, come to the Bible or to the Gospel? He is not 
concerned to explain the universe and enlarge the bounds of his 
knowledge by exploring the mysteries of being. He feels that no 
intellectual acquisition would give him much comfort—that none 
could be of much value, as long as this canker of sin and guilt is 
within. He craves no illumination of the intellect; at least, this desire 
is subordinate. But how shall this burden be taken from the spirit? 
How shall he come to peace with God and himself? 

It is the bread of life he longs for. Nothing can satisfy him, in 
the least, that does not correspond to his necessities as a moral being. 
He needs no argument to prove to him that he is not what he was 
made to be, and that his misery is his fault. To him Ch istianity, 
announcing redemption through Jesus Christ, God’s love to sinners, 
and His method of justifying the ungodly, is adopted, and is, therefore, 
likely to be welcome. A sin is a deed, so it is natural that redemption 
should be. 

As sin breaks the original order, so it is natural to expect that the 
system will be restored from the top. A penitent sinner is prepared 
to meet God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; and this fact 
is sweeter and grander in his view than all philosophies which profess, 
v/hether truly or falsely, to gratify a speculative curiosity. Were it his 
chief desire to be a knowing man, he would feel differently; but his 
intense and absorbing desire is to be a good man. 

It is not strange that among Protestants there should impercep¬ 
tibly spring up the false view concerning the Gospel on which I have 
commented. We say truly that the Bible is the religion of Protestants. 
Our attention is directed to the study ot a book. A one-sided, intel¬ 
lectual bent leads to the idea that the sole or the principal office of 
Christ is that of a teacher. He does not come to live and die and rise 
again and unite us to Himself and God, imparting a new principle or 
moral and spiritual life to loving, trusting souls; but He comes to 
teach and explain. If this be so, the next step is to drop Him for a 
consideration as a person and to fasten the attention on the contents 
of His doctrine; and who shall say that this step is not logically taken? 
As the intellectual element obtains a still stronger sway the interest in 
His doctrine is merely on the speculative side. 

Historical Christianity, with its great and moving events and the 
august personage who stands in the center, disappear from view and 
naught is left but a residuum of abstractions, a perversion and carica¬ 
ture of Gospel ideas. This proceeding may be compared to the course 
of one who should endeavor to resolve the American revolution into 
an intellectual process. Redemption is made up of events as real as 
the battles by which independence was achieved. We need some ex¬ 
planation of the purport of those battles and their bearing on the end 
which they secure. And so in the Bible, together with the record of 
what was" done by God, there is given an inspired interpretation 
from the Redeemer Himself, and from those who stand near Him, on 
whom the events that secured salvation made a fresh and lively impres- 


384 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


sion. The import of these events is set forth. And the conditions of 
attaining citizenship in this new state in the kingdom of God, which is 
provided through Christ, are defined. 

From the views which have been presented, perhaps, it is possible 
to see the foundation on which Christians hereafter may unite, and also 
how the Gospel will finally prevail over mankind. If redemption, 
looked at as the work of God, is thus historical, consisting in a series 
of events which culminate in the Lord’s resurrection and the mission 
of the Holy Ghost, the first thing is that these events should be be¬ 
lieved. 

So that Christianity, in both fact and doctrine, will become a thing 
perfectly established, as much so in our minds and feelings as are now 
the transactions of the American revolution, with the import and 
results that belong to them. It is every day becoming more evident 
that the facts of Christianity cannot be dissevered from the Christian 
system of doctrine, that the one cannot be held while the other is 
renounced, that if the doctrine is abandoned the facts will be denied. 
So that the time approaches when the acknowledgment of the evan¬ 
gelical history, carrying with it, as it will, a faith in the Scriptural 
exposition of it, will be a sufficient bond of union among Christians, 
and the church will return to the apostolic creed of its early days, 
which recounts an epitome of the facts of religion. 



XV, 

THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST, 


25 











































(_.hrist the §avior of the ^^^orld. 


By Rev. B. FAY MILLS, of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island. 


E are all agreed that, in its present con ¬ 
dition, this is not an ideal world. We 
all believe that it is not what it is 
meant to be; we all hope that it is not 
what it is to become. 

The doctrine of Christianity cen¬ 
ters not in a theory of morals nor a 
creed, but in a person. Christ is the 
revelation of what God is and of what 
man must become. He revealed the 
character of God as love suffering for 
the sins of man. He showed the tri¬ 
umphant possibility of life among the 
hardest human conditions, when lived 
in fellowship with God. He taught 
one great object lesson of trial and 
triumph that there could be no excuse 
for sin and that there would be no escape from 
righteousness. His one great mission and mes¬ 
sage was that God had “sent His Son into the 
world not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him 
might be saved.” 

He was Himself the revelation of all history and mystery and 
prophecy concerning God and man, the origin and destiny of the race. 
His whole conception of Himself was summed up in these words: 
“Christ, the Savior of the World,” and we get the full thought of His 
revelation by emphasizing the latter part of this supreme title and 
realizing that He came not to save selected individuals nor any chosen 
race, but to save the world—that His mission was to save humanity in 
all its relationships, to save individuals, indeed, but also to save society 
and the nations. 

If Christianity is not fitted and destined to be the universal life of 
man, it is fit for “nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under 
the feet of men.” Christ stands or falls in connection with His claim 
to be the Savior of the entire world. 

387 










- 


mm 




*W:M: 


f. Wi- pz 






mgmmm 








Rev. B. Fay Mills, Pawtuxet, R. I 











THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


389 


Whenever in the teachings of Christianity there has been a limita¬ 
tion of the extent of the atonement of Christ, for the saving of this 
world from out its present conditions of bondage and sin into the 
glorious liberty of redemption, there has come a deadly paralysis of 
His spirit and of the progress of His kingdom. 

There is a very real sense in which it was not necessary for Christ 
to come into the world in order that individuals might become ac¬ 
quainted with God. 

“The true light, that which lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world,” was shining in darkness for all the ages before the shepherds 
heard the angel song, and “as many as received Him, to them gave 
He the power to become the sons of God.” And then the “Word be¬ 
came flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as 
of the only begotten of the Father; full of grace and truth.” 

The Scriptures of the Old Testament and the annals of all nations 
teach us that “there never was a time when a penitent and consecrated 
soul might not walk with God.” Enoch “walked with God,” “and be¬ 
fore his translation he had his testimony that he pleased God.” Abra¬ 
ham was called the “friend of God.” Moses was called “the man of 
God.” Socrates was, in his light, a true prophet of the Most High and 
a forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth. 

But the mission of Jesus was to save the world itself. As a recent 
writer has well said, it is a deadly mistake to suppose that “Christ sim¬ 
ply came to rescue as many as possible out of the wrecked and sink¬ 
ing world.” 

He came to give the church a “commission that includes the sav¬ 
ing of the wreck itself, the question of its confusion and struggle, the 
relief of its wretchedness, a deliverance from its destruction.” This 
certainly was his own conception of his mission upon earth. 

The first annunciation by his immediate forerunner, when he stood 
in his presence, was: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sins of the world ” He said of Himself, “For the bread of God is 
He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.” 
“I am the living bread which caine down from heaven; if any man eat 
of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give him 
is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” He said to 
His followers: “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good 
cheer; I have overcome the world.” 

The mission of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world may be 
expressed, as has already been suggested, in four conceptions. 

First. He has a new and complete revelation of God’s eternal 
suffering for the redemption of humanity. He showed that God was 
pure and unselfish, and meek and forgiving, and that He had always 
been suffering for the sins of men. “God was in Christ, reconciling 
the world unto Himself.” He revealed the meaning of forgiveness 
and of deliverance from sin. 

A popular writer has suggested to us the vast distinction between 
indifference to sin and its forgiveness, which may well be illustrated 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 



by the experience of an individual in forgiving injury against himself. 
Resentment against sin is a far higher experience than that of indiffer¬ 
ence to it, but there is something far better than either, and that is to 
realize the enormity of the transgressor at its very worst and then to 
let resentment be destroyed and a self-sacrificing love fill the place 
that had been occupied by the resentment. 

It would be better for God to hate sin than to tolerate it; it would 
have been better to punish the most trivial sin of the most thoughtless 
sinner with all the excruciating tortures of the most terrible unending 
hell conceived by the imagination of man; but, it was infinitely better 
to take up into His own pure heart the blackest and deadliest sin 
of the lowest sinner, who should be willing to forsake it and return to 
God, and there let it be forever blotted out; to bind it upon the bleed¬ 
ing Lamb of God and let Him bear it away, as far as the east is from 
the west, into God’s eternal forgetfulness of love. 

A tender-spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me not long ago 
that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been 
committed against him; and God’s forgiveness of sin means something 
infinitely in contrast to His being able to look at it with indifference, 
and something even infinitely beyond the mere destruction of its grasp 
on man and his deliverance from its penalty and power. It meant 
the realizing of it in God’s own soul in all its foul hideousness and 
deadly strength, and the consuming it in the fires of his infinite love 
“He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in Him.” 

It has been costing God to forgive sin all that it had cost man to 
bear it and more. This had to be in God’s thought before He made 
the world. In the words of a modern prophet, “The cross of Christ 
indicates the cost and is the pledge of God’s eternal friendship for 
man.” Jesus Christ came to show what God was. He was in no sense 
a shield for us from the wrath of God, but “was the effulgence of God’s 
glory and the very image of His substance.” He said to one of His 
disciples, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” The heart of 
His teaching was “that God so loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son.” He taught, not that He had come to reconcile God 
unto the world, but that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
Himself.” He said of His Father, “I delight to do Thy will, O God, 
Thy law is written on My heart.” He said in His prayer to His Father, 
“I have declared Thy name unto them; yea, and I will declare it. I 
have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work.” 

He came to show us that the world had never belonged to the 
powers of evil, but that, in His original thought, God had decided that 
a moral world should be created, and that in this decision, which gave 
to humanity the choice of good and eyil, He had to take upon Him¬ 
self infinite suffering until the world should be brought back to Him. 
The redemption of the world by Christ is a part of the creation of the 
world for Christ. The cry upon the cross, “My God, My God, why 
hast Thou forsaken Me?” was the exhibition of what had been in the 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


391 


heart of God through the ages of the world, and was God’s eternal cry 
of self-renunciation as He forsook Himself in order that He might* 
forgive us. 

The Son of God was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world.” He was “foreordained before the foundation of the world, but 
was manifested in these last times for us.” Our hope of eternal life 
was promised by “God, that cannot lie, before the world began,” and 
“God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according 
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was 
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” 

This is a prodigal world, and the Father’s eyes have been looking 
through the centuries until He should see it coming to Him from the 
far-off country to have its stripes healed with His love, its weakness 
made strength with His self-sacrificing power, its hunger appeased 
unto fullness in the banqueting house of love, the new robes placed 
upon it, the dead made alive again and the lost forever found. 

Our second thought, concerning the mission of Jesus, is, that His 
life was the expression of the origin and destiny of man. We are told 
that Adam was created in the image of God, and if he had been an 
obedient child, it may have been that he would have grown up to be a 
full grown son of the Eternal, but he sold his birthright for a mess of 
pottage. The second Adam was the son of man, revealing to us that 
the perfect man differs in no respect from the perfect God. He was 
God. He became man—not a man, but man. He was God and man, 
not two persons in one existence, but revealing the identity of man 
and God, when man should have attained unto the place that he had 
always occupied in the eternal thought. 

The marvelous counterpart of this revelation is, that when God 
shall have perfected His thought concerning us, that man shall have to 
become in all things like unto Jesus Christ. Maniel says that all 
depends on whether we consider the first or second Adam the head of 
the human race. “I would have you know,” says the great apostle of 
the Gentiles, “that the head of every man is Christ.” 

Jesus says: “I know whence I came and whither I go,” and He 
thereby indicates that there is, in another’s words, “no power to come 
forth out from the beginning or the end, from the first to the last, with 
intimation of force or fear, that can claim subjection from man or as¬ 
sert dominion over him, or can effect the subversion of the love that 
is at the source and center of all things, or the disruption of the unity 
that is in the will of God, that is manifesting itself in the reconcilia¬ 
tion of all things. 

Christ says: “I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end¬ 
ing; I am He that was, and is, and is to come.” The blood of the world 
was poisoned and needed an infusion of purity for the correction of its 
standards and bestowal of desire and power to attain unto its high 
possibility. This was a partial object and result of the mission of 
Christ. “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” 
i !c said that His own body was the temple of God, and He taught His 



THE RESURRECTION—A. Naack 



THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


393 


followers that they, too, were to become temples of the living God in 
which God should meet with man. 

He showed that the destiny of man was to be one with God, and that 
infinite misery would be the result of the avoidance of this great op¬ 
portunity, and that God would count nothing “dear to Himself or to 
man that this might be accomplished.” “Other foundation can no man 
lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” 

Under the pride and vanity of the nation; under the scheming and 
frivolity and dishonesty and self-will of those who sit in high places in 
the earth; under the disregard of the law of love by the social, com¬ 
mercial and industrial organizations of the day; under every disobe¬ 
dience of the domestic and individual life is the eternal righteousness 
of Jesus Christ striving for manifestation and “straitened until its bap¬ 
tism is accomplished.” 

The third great thought in connection with the salvation of Jesus 
Christ is, that through the completeness of His redemption there is no 
necessity or reason for any form of sin in the individual. 

8 ‘ Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live 
with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no 
more, death hath no dominion over him. For in that he died, he died 
unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, 
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should 
obey it in the lusts thereof. 

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness 
unto sin. But yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from 
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto 
God. 

For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under 
the law, but under grace.” 

A great preacher has told us that Christ is able to save “unto the 
uttermost ends of the earth, to the uttermost limits of time, to the 
uttermost period of life, to the uttermost length of depravity, to the 
uttermost depth of misery and to the uttermost measure of perfection.” 

The Quaker poet has beautifully written: 

“ Through all the depths of sin and loss 
Drops the plummet of the cross. 

Never yet abyss was found, 

Deeper than the cross could sound.” 

Paul says, “ If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old 
things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.” 

It' is when the soul is willing to say, “He was wounded for my 
transgressions,” that he is in a position to realize that if he will sur¬ 
render himself unto the cross of Jesus and to the teachings of Jesus, 
the power of death and hell over him shall have forever been broken 
and he may live a life of freedom in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

The way of salvation for the individual through Christ is the 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


394 

knowledge of the love of God making atonement for the sins of the 
world; the discerning, the only real principle of power, in losing the 
life in order to save it, and the glad forsaking of all things to become 
His disciple and to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of 
Christ for His body’s sake.” 

It is here that the teaching and the life of Jesus are in glorious 
unity. The cross is not one thing and the Sermon on the Mount 
another. The kingdom which the Prince of Peace came to establish 
on earth had for its constitution those vital words which may be ex¬ 
pressed by the one word, love. 

God was “not willing that any should perish,” and the bitterest 
drop in the dregs of the unrepentant sinner’s cup of woe will be that 
it is utterly needless, and worse than needless, because of the redemp¬ 
tion of the world through Jesus Christ. 

But if a man “sin willfully after that he hath received the knowl¬ 
edge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin;” and to¬ 
day, in view of the infinite love and purpose of God and the great 
possibility and destiny of man, I do “beseech you, that you receive 
not the grace of God in vain.” 

The last thought concerning the salvation of the world through 
Jesus Christ is, that the loving righteousness of God must be finally 
triumphant. We cannot conceive of a heaven in which man should 
not be a moral being and free to choose good or evil, as he is upon 
this earth; and the joy of heaven will consist largely in that glad fixity 
of will that shall eternally lose itself in God. 

But what a terrible conception comes to us of the lost world, when 
we conceive ourselves, in spite of all the loving kindness and sacrifice 
of the eternal God, as still choosing to go on in sin, determining to 
resist His love, conscious of it, and yet without the power to escape it, 
saying: “If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there,” and yet 
choosing through the ages and ages to turn away from the righteous¬ 
ness of God and to pursue a life of indifference and sin. 

“ Though God be good and free be heaven, 

No force can love compel; 

And though the songs of sin forgiven 
Might sound through lowest hell; 

The sweet persuasion of His voice 
Respects thy sanctity of will. 

He giveth day. Thou hast thy choice 
To walk in darkness still.” 

No hell can extinguish the righteousness of God, and no flames 
consume His love, which is the manifestation of His righteousness, 
and must pursue all unrighteousness in every sinner with a “worm that 
dieth not and a fire that is not quenched.” “It is a fearful thing to fall 
into the hands of the living God. For our God is a consuming fire.” 

And as for our conception of heaven, when the world shall obey 
Jesus Christ and when all those who have surrendered unto His heart 
of love and have been working with Him throughout the eons, in the 
establishment of righteousness, shall be with Him in the new earth, no 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


395 


other heaven can be imagined. The redeemed earth shall be at least 
a part of heaven, and the city which John saw, the new Jerusalem 
descending out of heaven from God, shall be established. 

“ The tabernacle of God shall be with men and He will dwell with 
them, and they shall be His people; and God, Himself, shall be with 
them and be their God. And He shall wipe away every tear from 
their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed 
away.” 

This must be the end of the atonement of the life and the death 
of Jesus Christ and the keeping of His commandments, which are all 
summed up in the great name of God, which is Love. 

With shame I confess that all the disciples naming the name of 
Jesus Christ have not fully done His will in His spirit of self-sacrifice, 
and, indeed, have sometimes scarcely seemed to apprehend it. If we 
had, it is my honest conviction that we could not be gathered here to¬ 
day as a “ Parliament of Religions,” but that we would all be praising 
God together for His wonderful salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

We have already in this Parliament been rebuked by India and 
Japan with the charge that Christians do not practice tne teachings of 
Jesus. If China has not been heard from in words of even keener cen¬ 
sure, it has not been because she has not had good cause, as she thinks 
of the opium curse forced upon her by the laws of Christian England 
and of the action of the corrupt legislatures and congresses and pres¬ 
idents who have enacted, or stood by and consented to the enacting 
of the unjust, selfish, unreasonable, inhuman, unchristian and barbaric 
anti-Chinese laws of these Christian United States. 

I might reply by pointing to our hospital walls and college towers 
and myriad missionaries of mercy, but I forbear. We have done some¬ 
thing, but with shame and tears I say it—as kingdoms and empires and 
republics, as states and municipalities, and in our commercial and in¬ 
dustrial organizations, and even, in a large measure, as an organized 
church, we have not been practicing the teachings of Jesus as He said 
them and meant them, as the earliest disciples understood and prac¬ 
ticed them, and as we must again submit to them if we are to be the 
winners of the world for Jesus Christ. 

It is no excuse to say that with Christians the nation is not the 
church. That is a still further confession of comparative failure, for, 
in so far as the Christian church and Christian state are not coincident, 
the church has come short of the command of the Master: “Go ye 
therefore, and disciple all nations, teaching them to observe all things 

whatsoever I have commanded you.’ 

One of the local papers said the other day that perhaps the non- 
Christian delegates to this Parliament might be converted to Chris¬ 
tianity if they could be taken about Chicago blindfolded. 

There have been, and are today, in every Christian community 
white-souled saints of God, who are following the Lamb whitherso¬ 
ever He goeth” and bearing His cross aftei Him, but let us be wining 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


396 

to say plainly, although with shame, that while we have in the life and 
death and resurrection and teachings of Christ and the descent of the 
Holy Ghost the complete remedy for all the ills of individuals and 
nations, we have lacked the power of conquest because organized 
Christianity has been saying, “Lord, Lord,” to her Master and, as 
regards politics and society and property and industry, has not been 
doing the things that He said. 

Benjamin Franklin said that a generation of followers of Jesus, 
who practiced His teachings, would change the face of the earth. 
And it is true. When evil shall go forth with its deadly poison ready 
for dissemination, and find Christians who are meek and merciful and 
poor in spirit and pure in heart, and who count it all joy to be perse¬ 
cuted for righteousness’ sake; when it shall dart its venomed tongue 
at men and women who “resist not evil,” who “give to him that ask- 
eth” and from the borrower do not turn away; who “being struck 
upon one cheek turn the other also;” who love their enemies, bless 
those that curse them, do good to them that hate them and pray for 
them that despitefully use them and persecute them; who forgive their 
debtors because God has forgiven them; then shall the old serpent 
find no blood that shall be responsive to his poisonous touch, and shall 
sting himself unto the death, even as he did under that other cross 
which he looked upon as the token of the impotence of righteousness, 
but which was the wisdom and the power of God unto salvation and 
the prophecy of the triumph of eternal love 

And this I will say: That our brethren from across the sea have 
said all we need ask them to say, when, instead of attacking the life 
and teachings of Jesus, they show that we fail only because we may have 
said, “Lord, Lord,” and not done the things that He said. And this 
also I say: That the only hope of Asia, as of America and of Africa, 
as of Europe, is in the love of God and the establishment of His uni¬ 
versal kingdom of peace which must be set up on earth and which 
shall have no end. 

This, my brothers, is all that must, is all that can endure; it is the 
teaching of teachings and the inspiration of inspirations for the sons of 
men. 

It is of universal application. Jesus was born in the east and has 
gained His greatest present triumphs in the west. When men shall 
have begun again to practice the teachings of Jesus in every walk and 
relationship of life, then there will be no social enigmas unsolved and 
no political questions unanswered; but men shall be in union with God 
and at peace with one another, and heaven and earth shall be one in 
the creation of the “new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 

And there are indications of such a triumph now. Every lan¬ 
guage may be translated into every other tongue of man. The last 
religion of the world has been investigated and its teachings are open 
to the eyes of all. God today looks down upon such a spectacle of 
sincere desire and of honest purpose to know the truth as the groan¬ 
ing and travailing creation has never before seen, and the only solu- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


397 


tion of all the questionings and differences and hopes of men must be 
in the principles of the ruler of the kingdom of God: “Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all 
thy mind and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself.” 

No message of love to God and man has ever been in vain. No 
love of man or God has ever perished from the universe; no life of 
love has ever been or ever can be lost. This is the only infinite and 
only eternal message, and this is the reason why the mission and the 
message of Jesus of Nazareth must abide. This is the reason that the 
life of Jesus is eternal and that all things must be subdued unto Him; 
for “Love never faileth; but whether there will be prophecies, they 
shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; 
whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in 
part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is 
come, that which is in part shall be done away. For now we see in a 
mirror darkly, but then face to face; now we know in part, but then shall 
we know even as also we are known.” 

“ For, lo! the days are hastening on 
By prophet bards foretold, 

When, with the ever circling years. 

Comes round the age of gold; 

When peace shall, over all the earth, 

Its ancient splendor fling, 

And the whole world give back the song 
Which now the angels sing.” 

And when, at last, we shall clearly know what we now dimly see 
in Jesus Christ, that “ Love is righteousness in action;” that mercy is 
the necessary instrument of justice; that “good has been the final goal 
of ill,” and that through testing, innocence must have been glorified 
into virtue; when we shall see that God is love and law is gospel, and 
sin has been transformed into righteousness—then shall we also see that 
“there is one body and one spirit, even as also we were called in one 
hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Then shall we 
see “ that unto each one of us was this grace given according to the 
measure of the gift of Christ, and we shall all attain unto the unity of the 
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God; unto a full grown man; 
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” and 

"Every kindred, every tribe on this terrestial ball, 

To Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all.’ 



> _Is ■ 




mm 


mm 


■mm 




Rt. Rev. John J. Keane, D. D. (Rector Catholic University), Washington, D. C 










1 he Incarnation Jdea in ]Jistory and in 

Jesus Qhrist. 

By RT. REV. JOHN J. KEANE, D. D. (Catholic.) 


E subject assigned to me is so vast that an 
hour would not suffice to do it justice. Hence, 
in the space of thirty minutes I can only point 
out certain lines of thought, trusting, however, 
that their truth will be so manifest and their 
significance so evident that the conclusion to 
which they lead may be clearly recognized as 
a demonstrated fact. 

Cicero has truly said that there never was 
a race of atheists. Cesare Balbo has noted 
with equal truth that there never has been a 
race of deists. Individual atheists and indi¬ 
vidual deists there have always been, but they 
have always been recognized as abnormal 
beings. Humanity listens to them, weighs 
their utterances in the scales of reason, smiles sadly at their vagaries, 
and holds fast the two-fold conviction that there is a Supreme Being, 
the Author of all else that is; and that man is not left to the mercy of 
ignorance or of guess work in regard to the purpose of his being, but 
has knowledge of it from the great Father. 

This sublime conception of the existence of God and of the exist¬ 
ence of revelation is not a spontaneous generation from the brain of 
man. Tyndal and Pasteur have demonstrated that there is no spon¬ 
taneous generation from the inorganic to the organic. Just as little is 
there, or could there be, a spontaneous generation of the idea of the 
Infinite from the brain of the finite. The fact, in each case, is the 
result of a touch from above. All humanity points back to a golden 
age, when man was taught of the Divine by the Divine, that in that 
knowledge he might know why he himself existed, and how his life 
was to be shaped. 

Curiosly, strangely, sadly as that primitive teaching of man by 
’iis Creator has been transformed in the lapse of ages, in the vicissi- 




400 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


tudes of distant wanderings, of varying fortunes and of changing cul¬ 
ture, still the comparative study of ancient religions shows that in 
them all there has existed one central, pivotal concept, dressed, indeed, 
in various garbs of myth and legend and philosophy, yet ever recog¬ 
nizably the same—the concept of the fallen race of man and of a future 
restorer, deliverer, redeemer, who, being human, should yet be different 
from and above the merely human. 

Again we ask, whence this concept? And again the sifting of 
serious and honest criticism demonstrates that it is not a spontaneous 
generation of the human brain, that it is not the outgrowth of man’s 
contemplation of nature around him and of the sun and stars above 
him, although, once having the concept, he could easily find in all 
nature symbols and analogies of it. It is part, and the central part, of 
the ancient memory of the human race, telling man what he is and 
why he is such, and how he is to attain to something better as his 
heart yearns to do. 

Glancing now, in the light of the history of religions, at that 
stream of tradition as it comes down the ages, we see it divide into two 
clearly distinct branches—one shaping thought, or shaped by thought, 
in the eastern half of Asia; the other in the western half. And these 
two separate streams receive their distinctive character from the idea 
prevalent in the east and west of Asia concerning the nature of man, 
and, consequently, concerning his relation to God. 

In the west of Asia, the Semitic branch of the human family, to 
gether with its Aryan neighbors of Persia, considered man as a sub¬ 
stantial individuality, produced by the Infinite Being, and produced 
as a distinct entity, distinct from his Infinite Author in his own finite 
personality, and through the immortality of the soul. 

Eastern Asia, on the contrary, held that man had not a substan¬ 
tial individuality, but only a phenomenal individuality. There is, they 
said, only one substance—the Infinite; all things are but phenomena, 
emanations of the Infinite. “Behold,” say the Laws of Manou, “how 
the sparks leap from the flame and fall back into it; so all things ema¬ 
nate from Brahma and again lose themselves in him.” “Behold,” says 
Buddhism, “how the dewdrop lies on the lotus leaf, a tiny particle of 
the stream, lifted from it by evaporation and slipping off the lotus 
leaf to lose itself in the stream again.” Thus they distinguished 
between being and existence, between persisting substance, the Infinite 
and the evanescent phenomena emanating from it fora while. 

From these opposite concepts of man sprang opposite concepts 
of the nature of good and evil. In western Asia, good was the con¬ 
formity of the finite will with the will of the Infinite, which is wisdom 
and love; evil was the deviation of the finite will from the eternal 
norma of wisdom and love. Hence individual accountability and 

f uilt, as long as the deviation lasted; hence the cure of evil when the 
nite will is brought back into conformity with the Infinite; hence the 
happiness of virtue and the bliss of immortality and the value of 
existence. Eastern Asia, per contra, considered existence as simply and 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


401 


solely an evil; .n fact, the sole and all-pervading evil, and the only 
good was deliverance from existence, the extinction of all individuality 
in the oblivion of the Infinite. Although existence was conceived as 
the work of the Infinite—nay, as an emanation coming forth from the 
Infinite—yet it was considered simply a curse, and all human duty had 
this for its meaning and its purpose, to break loose from the fetters of 
existence and to help others with ourselves to reach non-existence. 

Hence again, in western Asia, the future redeemer was conceived 
as one masterful individuality, human, indeed, type and head of the 
race, but also pervaded by the divinity in ways and degrees more or 
less obscurely conceived and used by the divinity to break the chains 
of moral evil and guilt—nay, often, they supposed, of physical and 
national evils as well—and to bring man back to happiness, to holi- 
nessj to God. Thus, vaguely or more clearly, they held the idea of an 
incarnation of the Deity for man’s good; and ITs incarnation was nat¬ 
urally looked forward to as the crowning blessing and glory of 
humanity. 

In eastern Asia, on the contrary, as man and all things were re¬ 
garded as phenomenal emanations of the Infinite, it followed that 
every man was an incarnation. And hence this phenomenal existence 
was considered a curse, which metempsychosis dragged out pitifully. 
And if there was room for the notion of a redeemer, he was to be one 
recognizing more clearly than others what a curse existence is, strug¬ 
gling more resolutely than others to get out of it, and exhorting and 
guiding others to escape from it with him. 

We pause to estimate these two systems. We easily recognize 
that their fundamental difference is a difference of philosophy. The 
touchstone of philosophy is human reason, and we have a right to 
apply it to all forms of philosophy. With no irreverence, therefore, 
but in all reverence and tenderness of religious sympathy, we apply 
to the philosophies underlying those two systems, the touchstone of 
reason. 

We ask eastern Asia, How can the phenomena of the Infinite 
Being be finite? For phenomena are not entities in themselves, but 
phases of being. We have only to look calmly in order to see here a 
contradiction in terms, an incompatibility in ideas, an impossibility. 

We ask again, How can the emanations of the Infinite Being be 
evil? For the Infinite Being must be essentially good. Zoroaster 
declared that Ahriman, the evil one, had had a beginning and would 
have an end, and was, therefore, not eternal nor infinite. And if there 
is but one substance, then the emanations, the phenomena of the Infi¬ 
nite Being are Himself; how can they be evil? How can His incarna¬ 
tion be the one great curse to get free from? 

Again we ask, How can this human individuality of ours, so strong, 
sc persistent in itself-consciousness and self-assertion, be a phenome¬ 
non without a substance? Or, if it has as its substance the Infinite 
Being Himself, then how can it be, as it too often is, so ignorant and 
erring, so weak and changeful, so lying, so dishonest, so mean, so vile? 

26 



THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


403 


For, let us remember, that acts are predicated not of phenomena, but 
of substance, of being. 

Once more we ask, If human existence is but a curse, and if the 
only blessing is to restrain, to resist, to thwart and get rid of all that 
constitutes it, then what a mockery and a lie is that aspiration after 
human progress, which spurs noble men to their noblest achievements! 

To these questions pantheism, emanationism, has no answer that 
reason can accept. It can never constitute a philosophy, because its 
bases are contradictions. Shall we say that a thing may be false in 
philosophy and yet true in religion? That was said once by an 
inventor of paradoxes; but reason repudiates it as absurd, and the 
apostle of the Gentiles has well said that religion must be “our reason¬ 
able service.” Human life, incarnation, redemption, must mean some¬ 
thing different from this. For the spirit that breathes through the 
tradition of the east, the spirit of profound self-annihilation in the 
presence of the Infinite and of ascetic self-immolation as to the things 
of sense, we not only may but ought to entertain the tenderest sym¬ 
pathy, nay, the sincerest reverence. Who that has looked into it but 
has felt the fascination of its mystic gloom? But religion means more 
than this; it is meant not for man’s heart alone, but for his intellect 
also. It must have for its foundation a bed rock of solid philosophy. 
Turn we then and apply the touchstone to the tradition of the west. 

Here it needs no lengthy philosophic reflection to recognize how 
true it is that what is not self-existent, what has a beginning must be 
finite, and that the finite must be substantially distinct from the Infi¬ 
nite. We recognize that no multiplication of finite individualties can 
detract from the Infinite, nor could their addition add to the Infinite; 
for infinitude resides not in multiplication of things, but in the bound¬ 
less essence of Being, in whose simple and all-pervading immensity 
the multitude of finite things have their existence gladly and grate¬ 
fully. “What have you that you have not received? And if you have 
received it, why should you glory as if you had not received it?” This 
is the keynote not only of their humble dependence, but also of their 
gladsome thankfulness. 

We recognize that man’s substantial individuality, his spiritual 
immortality, his individual power of will and consequent moral respon¬ 
sibility, are great truths linked together in manifest logic, great facts 
standing together immovably. 

We see that natural ills are the logical result of the limitations of 
the finite, and that moral evil is the result of the deviation of humanity 
from the norma of the Infinite, in which truth and rectitude essentially 
reside. 

We see that the end and purpose and destiny, as well as the ori¬ 
gin, of the finite must be in the Infinite; not in the extinction of the 
finite individuality—else why should it receive existence at all—but in 
its perfection and beatitude. And therefore we see that man’s upward 
aspiration for the better and the best is no illusion, but a reasonable 
instinct for the right guidance of his life. 


404 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


All this we find explicitly stated or plainly implied in the tradi¬ 
tion of the west. Here we have a philosophy concerning God and 
concerning man, which may well serve as the rational basis of religion. 
What, then, has this tradition to tell us concerning the incarnation and 
the redemption? 

From the beginning we see every finger pointing toward “the 
expected of the nations, the desired of the everlasting hills.” One after 
another the patriarchs, the pioneer fathers of the race, remind their 
descendants of the promise given in the beginning. Revered as they 
were, each of them says: “1 am not the expected one; look forward 
and strive to be worthy to receive Him.” 

Among all those great leaders Moses stands forth in special grand- 
eur and majesty. But in his sublime humility and truthfulness Moses 
also exclaims: “I am not the Messiah; I am only His type and figure 
and precursor. The Lord hath used me to deliver His people from the 
land of bondage, but hath not permitted me to enter the promised 
land because 1 trespassed against Him in the midst of the children of 
Israel at the waters of contradiction; I am but a figure of the sinless 
One who is to deliver mankind from the bondage of evil and lead 
them into the promised land of their eternal inheritance. Look for¬ 
ward and prepare for Him.” 

One after another’the prophets, the glorious sages of Israel, arise, 
and each, like Moses, points forward to Him that is to come. And 
each brings out in clearer light who and what He is to be, the nature 
of the incarnation. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and shall bring 
forth a son and He shall be called Emmanuel.” That is God with us. “A 
little child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the principality 
is on His shoulder, and He shall be called the Wonderful, the Coun¬ 
selor, the Mighty God, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of 
Peace.” 

Outside of the land of Israel the nations of the Gentiles were stirred 
with similar declarations and expectancies. Soon after the time of 
Moses Zoroaster gives to Persia the prediction of a future Saviour and 
judge of the world. 

Greece hears the olden promise that Prometheus shall yet be de¬ 
livered from his chains re-echoed in the prayer of dear old Socrates 
that one would come from heaven to teach IT is people the truth and 
save them from the sensualism to which they clung so obstinately. 
And pagan Rome, the inheritor of all that had preceded her, hears the 
sibyls chanting of the Divine One that was to be given to the world by 
the wonderful virgin mother, and feels the thrill of that universal ex¬ 
pectancy concerning which Tacitus testifies that all were then looking 
for a great leader who was to arise in Judea and to rule the world. 

And the expectation of the world was not to be frustrated. At 
tiie very time foretold by Daniel long ages 'before, of the tribe of 
Judah, of the family of David, in the little town of Bethlehem, with 
fulfillment of all the predictions of the prophets, the Messiah appears, 
behold,” says the messenger of the Most High to the Virgin of* Naz- 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


405 


areth, “thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, 
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be 
called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto 
Him the throne of David, His father, and He shall reign in the house 
of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” “How 
shall this be done, because 1 know not man?” “The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow 
thee; and, therefore, also the Holy One that shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God.” “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it 
done to me according to thy word.' 

And what then? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and of His fullness we all 
have received.” And concerning Him all subsequent ages were to 
chant the canticle of faith: “1 believe in one God, the Father Almighty, 
Creator of heaven and earth, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only 
begotten Son of Gca, born of the Father before all ages; God of God, 
Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, consubstan- 
tictl with the Father, through whom all things were made. who. for us 
men and for our salvation, came down from heaven and was incarnated 
by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man,” 

But, again, to this tremendous declaration, which involves not only 
a religion but a philosophy also, we may, and we should, apply the 
touchstone of reason and ask, “Is this possible or is it impossible 
things that are here told us? For we never can be expected to believe 
the impossible. Let us analyze the ideas comprised in it. Can God 
and man thus become one?” 

Now, first, reason testifies as to man that in him two distinct and, 
as it would seem, opposite substances are brought into unity, namely, 
spirit and matter, the one not confounded with the other yet both 
linked in one, thus completing the unity and harmony of created things. 
Next reason asks, Can the creature and the Creator, man and God, be 
thus united in order that the unity and the harmony may embrace all? 

Reason sees that the finite could net thus mount to the Infinite 
any more than matter of itself could mount to spirit. But could not 
the Infinite stoop to the finite and lift it to His bosom and unite it with 
Himself, with no confounding of the finite with the Infinite nor of the 
Infinite with the finite, yet so that they shall be linked in one? Here 
reason can discern no contradiction of ideas, nothing beyond the 
power of the Infinite. But could the Infinite stoop to this? Reason 
sees that to do so would cost the Infinite nothing, since. He is ever His 
unchanging Self; it sees, moreover, that since creation is the offspring 
•not of His need but of His bounty, of His love, it would be most 
worthy of infinite love to thus perfect the creative act, to thus lift up 
the creature and bring all things into unity and harmony. Then must 
reason declare it is not only possible, but it is most fitting, that it 
should be so. 

Moreover, we see that it is this very thing that all humanity has 


406 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


been craving for, whether intelligently or not. This very thing all re¬ 
ligions have been looking forward to, or have been groping for in the 
dark. Turn we then to Himself and ask: “Art Thou He who is to 
come, or look we for another?” To that question He must answer, 
for the world needs and must have the truth. Meek and humble of 
heart though He be, the world has a right to know whether He be in¬ 
deed “the Expected of the Nations, the Immanuel, Lord with us.” 
Therefore does He answer clearly and unmistakably: 

“Abraham rejoiced that he should see My day. He saw it and 
was glad.” 

“Art Thou, then, older than Abraham?” 

“ Before Abraham was I am.” 

“Who art Thou, then?” 

“ I am the beginning, who also speak to you.” 

“ Whosoever seeth Me seeth the Father; I and the Father are 
one.” 

“ No one cometh to the Father but by Me.” 

“ I am the way and the truth and the life.” 

“ I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me walketh not 
in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” 

“ I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in Me, and I in you. 
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so 
neither can you unless you abide in Me, for without Me you can do 
nothing.” 

He asks His disciples to declare who He is. Simon replies: 
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

He answers: “Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jona, because flesh 
and blood have not revealed this to thee, but My Father who is in 
heaven. ” 

Thomas falls on his knees before Him, exclaiming, “My Lord and 
my God!” He answers, “Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou 
hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and have yet 
believed.” 

His enemies threaten to stone Him, “because,” they said, “being 
man, He maketh Himself God.” They demand that for this reason 
He shall be put to death. The high priest exclaims, “I adjure Thee 
by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, the Son of 
the living God.” He answers, “Thou hast said it, I am; and one day 
you shall see Me sitting on the right hand of the power of God and 
coming in the clouds of heaven.” 

In fulfillment of the prophecies He is condemned to death. He 
declares that it is for the world’s redemption: “I lay down My life for 
My sheep. No one taketh My life from Me, but I lay down My life,/ 
and I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up 
again.” 

As proof of all He said, He foretold His resurrection from death 
on the third day, and in the glorious evidence of the fulfillment of the 
pledge His church has ever since been chanting the Easter anthem 
throughout the world. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


407 


To that church He gives a commission of spiritual authority ex¬ 
tending to all ages, to all nations, to every creature; a commission 
that would be madness in any mouth save that of God Incarnate. 

This is the testimony concerning Himself given to an inquiring 
and needy world by Him whom no one will dare accuse of lying or 
imposture, and the loving adoration of the ages proclaims that PI is 
testimony is true. 

In Him are fulfilled all the figures and predictions of Moses and 
the prophets; all the expectation and yearning of Israel. In Him is 
the fullness of grace and of truth toward which the sages of the Gen¬ 
tiles, with sad or with eager longing, stretched forth their hands. In 
each of them there was much that was true and good; in Him was all 
they had, and all the rest that they longed for; in Him alone is the 
fullness, and to all of them and all of their disciples we say: “Come 
to the fullness.” 

Edwin Arnold, who in his “Light of Asia” has pictured in all the 
colors of poesy the sage of the far east, has in his later “Light of the 
World” brought that wisdom of the east in adoration to the feet of 
Jesus Christ. May his words be a prophecy. 

O, Lather, grant that the words of Thy Son may be verified, that 
all, through Him, may at last be made one in Thee. 



Kev. Julian K. Smyth (Church of the New Jerusalem), Boston, Mass. 




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1 he Jncarnation of God in Qhrist. 

By Rev. JULIAN K. SMYTH, of Boston. (Swedenborgian.) 



is related that some Greeks once came to 
Jerusalem and, to a fisherman of Bethsaida, 
they said: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Hellas 
came to Israel; the nation of culture approach¬ 
ed the people of revelation, and the patrons, 
if, indeed, we may not say the worshipers, of 
the Beautiful asked to look into the face of 


Him who “hath no form nor comeliness,” 
whose “visage was so marred unlike to a man 
and His form unlike to the sons of men ” A 
few years later a Tarsus Jew, a messenger of 
Jesus of Nazareth, standing in the court of th„ 
Areopagites, said to the men of Athens who 
asked concerning “the new doctrine:” “Whom 
ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you. 1 ’ 
1 And the question of the Greeks has passed 
from mouth to mouth, as the story of the “man of sorrows” has 
been carried around the world, until now, in this gathering together 
of all religions, it is put forth as a question of humanity. 

To attempt to explain from the Christian standpoint the coming 
and the nature of that Person, the influence of whose life has been 
so creative of spiritual hope and purpose, is a responsibility, the 
weightiness of which is felt in proportion as it is believed that to as 
many as receive Him, to them gives He the power to become children of 
God; that He is the word made flesh, and that the glory which men 
behold in Him is in very truth, “the glory as of the only begotten of 
the Father ” 

Christianity, in its broadest as well as its deepest sense, means the 
presence of God in humanity. It is the revelation of God in His 
world; the opening up of a straight, sure way to that God; and a new 
tidal flow of divine life to all the sons of men. The hope of this has. 
in some measure, been in every age and in every religion, stirring them 
with expectation. Evil might be strong'; but a day would come when 
the seed of a woman would bruise the serpent’s head, even though it 
should bruise the Conqueror’s heel. God in His world to champion 
and redeem it! This is what the religions of the ages have, in some 

409 




410 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


form and with various degrees of certainty, looked for. This is what 
sang itself into the songs and prophesies of Israel. 

“And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed; and all flesh shall see 
it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.” 

“Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come in strength, and His arm 
shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work 
before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall 
gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and 
shall gently lead those that are with young.” 

Christianity is in the world to utter her belief that He who revealed 
Himself as the Good Shepherd realizes these expectations and fulfills 
these promises, and that in the Word made flesh the glory of Jehovah 
has been revealed and all flesh may see it together. Even in child¬ 
hood He bears the name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is “God 
with us.” He explains His work and His presence by declaring that 
it is the coming of the kingdom—not of law, nor of earthly govern¬ 
ment, nor of ecclesiasticism —but of God. 

His purpose, to manifest and bring forth the love and the wisdom 
of God; His miracles, simply the attestations of the divine imma¬ 
nence; His supreme end, the culmination of all His labors; His suffer¬ 
ings, His victories, to become the open and glorified medium of 
divine life to the world. It is not another Moses, nor another Elias, 
but God in the world—God with us—this, the supreme announcement 
of Christianity, asserting his immanence, revealing God and man as 
intended for each other and rousing in man slumbering wants and 
capacities to realize the new vision of manhood that dawns upon him 
from this luminous figure. 

Christianity affirms as a fundamental fact of the God it worships 
that He is a God who does not hide or withhold Himself, but who is 
ever going forth to man in the effort to reveal Himself, and to be known 
and felt according to the degree of man’s capacity and need. This 
self-manifestation or “forthgoing of all that is known or knowable of 
the divine perfections” is the Logos, or Word; and it is the very center 
of Christian revelation. This word is God, not withdrawn in dreary 
solitude, but coming into intelligible and personal manifestation. From 
the beginning—for so we may now read the “Golden Proem” of St. 
John’s Gospel, with its wonderful spiritual history of the Logos—from 
the beginning God has this desire to go forth to something outside of 
Himself and be known by it. “In the beginning was the Word.” 
Hence the creation. “All things were made by Him.” Hence, too, 
out of this divine desire to reveal and accommodate Himself to man, 
His presence in various forms of religion. “He was in the world.” 
Even in man’s sin and spiritual blindness the eternal Logos seeks to 
bring itself to his consciousness. 

“The Light shineth in the darkness.” But gradually through the 
ages, through man’s sinfulness, his spiritual perceptions become dim 
and he sees, as in a state of open-eyed blindness, only the forms through 
which the divine mind has sought to manifest Himself. “He was in 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


411 


the world and the world knew Him not.” What more can be done? 
Type, symbol, religious ceremonials, scriptures—all have been em¬ 
ployed. Has not man slipped beyond the reach of the divine endeav¬ 
ors? But the Christian history of the Logos moves on to its supreme 
announcement: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us 
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and tiuth.” Not some angel come from heaven 
to deliver some further message; not another prophet sprung from our 
bewildered race to chide, to warn or to exhort, but the Logos, which 
in the beginning was with God and which was God; the Jehovah of the 
old prophecies, whose glory, it had been promised, would be revealed 
that all flesh might see it together. 

And so in the Christian view of it the story of the Logos com¬ 
pletes itself in the story of the manger. And so, too, the incarnation, 
instead of being exceptional, is exactly in line with what the Logos 
has, from the beginning, been doing. God, as the Word, has ever been 
coming to man in a form accommodated to his need, keeping step 
with his steps until, in the completeness of this desire to bring Him¬ 
self to man where he is, He appears to the natural senses and in a form 
suitable to our natural life. 

In the Christian conception of God, as one who seeks to reveal 
himself to man, it simply is inevitable that the Word should manifest 
Himself on the very lowest plane of man’s life, if at any time it would 
be true to say of his spiritual condition: “This people’s heart is waxed 
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have 
closed.” It is not extraordinary in the sense of its being a hard or an 
unnatural thing for God to do. He has always been approaching man, 
always adapting His revelations to human conditions and needs. It 
is this constant accommodation and manifestation that has kept man’s 
power of spiritual thought alive. The history of religions, together 
with their remains, is a proof of it. The testimony of the historic 
faiths presented in this parliament has confirmed it as the most self- 
evident thing of the divine nature in His dealings with the children of 
men, and the incarnation of its natural and completest outcome. 

And when we begin toifollow the life of Him whose footprints, in 
the light of Christian history and experience, are still looked upon as 
the very footprints of the Incarnate Word, the Gospel story is a story 
of toil, of suffering, of storm and tempest; a story of sacrifice, of love 
so pure and holy that even now it has the power to touch, to thrill, to 
re-create man’s selfish nature. There is an undoubted actuality in the 
human side of this life, but just as surely there is a certain divine 
something forever speaking through those human tones and reaching 
out through those kindly hands. The character of the Logos is never 
lost, sacrificed or lowered. It is always this v divine something trying 
to manifest itself, trying to make itself understood, trying to redeem 
man from his slavery to evil and draw to itself his spiritual attach¬ 
ment. 

Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age-long effort of the 


412 


THE RELIGIONS OF HIE WORLD. 


Word to reveal itself to man only now through a nature formed and 
born for the purpose. We are reminded of it when we hear Him say. 
“Before Abraham was, I am.” We are assured of it when He declares 
that He came forth from the Father. And we know that He has tri¬ 
umphed when, at the last, we hear His promise, “Lo, I am with you 
always.” It is the Logos speaking. The divine purpose has been ful¬ 
filled. The Word has come forth on this plane of human life, mani¬ 
fested Himself and established a relationship with man nearer and 
dearer than ever before. He has made Himself available and indis¬ 
pensable to every need or effort. “Without Me, ye can do nothing.” 
In His divine humanity He has established a perfect medium whereby 
we may have free and immediate access to God’s Fatherly help. “I 
am the Door of the sheep.” “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” 

In this thought of the divine character of the Son of Man, the 
early Christians found strength and comfort. For a time they did not 
attempt to define this faith, theologically. It was a simple, direct, 
earnest faith in the goodness and redeeming power of the God-Man, 
whose perfect nature had inspired them to believe in the reality of His 
heavenly reign. They felt that the risen Lord was near them; that 
H e was the Saviour so long promised; the world’s hope, “in whom 
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” But today man 
claims his right to enter understanding^ into the mysteries of faith, 
and reason asks, How could God or the divine Logos be made flesh? 

Yet, in seeking for an answer to such an inquiry, we are at the 
same time seeking to know of the origin of human life. The concep¬ 
tion and birth of Jesus Christ, as related in the Gospels, is, declares the 
reason, a strange fact. So, too, is the conception and birth of every 
human being. Neither can be explained by any principle of natural¬ 
ism, which regards the external as first and the internal as second 
and of comparative unimportance. Neither can be understood unless 
it be recognized that spiritual forces and substances are related to nat¬ 
ural forces and substances as cause and effect; and that they, the for¬ 
mer, are prior and the active formative agents, playing upon and 
received by the latter. 

We do not articulate words and then try to pack them with ideas 
and intentions. The process is the reverse. First, the intention, then 
that intention coming forth as a thought, and then the thought incar¬ 
nating itself by means of articulated sounds or written characters. 

By this same law man is primarily, essentially, a spiritual being. 
In the very form of his creation that which essentially is the man, and 
which in time loves, thinks, makes plans and efforts for useful life, is 
spiritual. In his conception, then, the human seed must not only be 
acted upon but be derived from invisible, spiritual substances, which 
are clothed with natural substances for the sake of conveyance. That 
which is slowly developed into a human being or soul must be a living 
organism composed of spiritual substances. Gradually that primitive 
form becomes enveloped and protected within successive clothings, 
while the mother, from the substances of the natural world, silently 


THE RE LI GOINS OF THE WORLD. 


413 


weaves trhe swathings and coverings which are to serve as a natural or 
physical body and make possible its entrance into this outer court of 
life. 

We do not concede, then, that there is anything impossible or con 
trary to order in the declaration of the Gospel, but “that which is 
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” It is still in line with the gen¬ 
eral law of the conception and birth of all human beings. The primitive 
form or nature, as in the case of man, is spiritual. But in this instance 
it is not derived from a human father, but is especially formed or 
molded by the divine creative spirit, formed as with us of spiritual 
substances; formed with a perfection and with infinite possibilities of 
development unknown to us; formed, too, for the special purpose of 
being the perfect instrument or medium upon and through which the 
divine might act as its very soul. 

Because that primitive form is divinely molded or begotten, in¬ 
stead of being derived from a finite paternity, it is unique. It is divine 
in first principles. In the outer clothings of the natural mind and in 
the successive wrappings furnished by the woman nature, it shares our 
weakness. But primarily, essentially, it is born with the capacity of 
becoming divine through the removal of whatever is imperfect or 
limiting, and through complete union with the Divine which formed it 
for Himself. 

Very like our humanities in all that pertains to the growth of the 
natural body and natural mind would be this humanity of the Son of 
Man. The same tenderness and helplessness of its infantile body; the 
possibility of weariness, hunger, thirst, pain; the same exposure, too, 
in the lower planes of the mind, to the assaults of evil resulting in 
eternal struggle, temptation and anguish of spirit. And yet there is 
always an unlikeness, a difference, in that the very primitive, deter* 
mining forms and possibilities of that humanity are divinely begotten. 

And so we think of this humanity of Jesus Christ as so formed and 
born as to be able to serve as a perfect instrument whereby the eternal 
Logos might come and dwell among us; might so express and pom 
forth His love; might so accommodate and reveal His truth; might 
in a word, so set Himself on all the planes of angelic and human exist¬ 
ence as to be forever after immediately present in them, and so 
become literally, actually God-with-us. 

Gradually this was done. Gradually the Divine Life of love and 
wisdom came into the several planes which, by incarnation, existed in 
this humanity, removing from them whatever was limiting or imper¬ 
fect, substituting what was divine, filling them, glorifying them, and 
in the end making them a very part of Himself. 

This brings into harmony the two elements which we are apt to 
look upon and keep distinct, the human and the divine. For He 
Himself tells us of a process, a distinct change which His humanity 
underwent, and which is the key to His real nature. ‘ The Holy Spirit, 
says the record, “was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet 
glorified.” Some divine operation was going on within that humanity 



EASTER MORNING 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


415 


which was not fully accomplished. But on the eve of His crucifixion 
he exclaimed: “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified 
in Him.” It is this process of putting off what was finite and infirm in 
the human and the substitution of the divine from within, resulting in 
the formation of a divine humanity. So long as that is going on the 
human as the Son feels a separation from the divine as the Father 
and speaks of it and turns to it as though it were another person. But 
when the glorification is accomplished, when the divine has entirely 
filled the human and they act “reciprocally and unanimously as soul 
and body,” then the declaration is: “I and the Father are one.” Di¬ 
vine in origin, human in birth, divinely human through glorification. 
As to His soul, or immortal being, the Father; as to His human, the 
Son; as to the life and saving power that go forth from His glorified 
nature, the Holy Spirit. 

This story of the divine life in its descent to man, this coming or 
incarnation of the Logos through the humanity of Jesus Christ, is the 
sweet and serious privilege of Christianity to carry into the world. I 
try to state it; I try from a new theological standpoint to show reasons 
for its rational acceptance. 

But I know that however true and necessary explanations may be, 
the fact itself transcends them all. No one in this free assembly is 
required or expected to hide his denominationalism. And yet I love 
to stand with my fellow Christians and unite with them in that simplest, 
most comprehensive creed that was ever uttered, Credo Domino. 
Denominationalism, dogmatism, aside! Aside, too, all prejudices and 
practices. What is the simplest, the fundamental idea of the being of 
Jesus Christ? Brother men, are we not ready to unite in saying it is, 
and saying it to the whole round world? The Lord Jesus Christ is 
the life or the love of God, manifesting itself to man, going out into 
the world, awakening the capacity which is in every man for spiritual, 
yes, for divine life. Is not that the very heart of the Gospel, or rather, 
is not that the Gospel? And is it not equally true that up to this hour 
there is no fact so real, no fact so powerful, no fact that is working 
such spiritual wonders as the fact, the influence, the being of Jesus 
Christ? 

We are sitting here as the first great parliament of the religions of 
the world. We rightly believe, we boldly say, that from this time on 
the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man must mean more 
to us than ever before, and none can be so timid but would dare to 
stand here and say that in this hall the death-knell of bigotry has 
sounded. Yet it were a sacrilege to suppose that the large tolerance 
which has been shown here and which has secured for the representa¬ 
tives of every faith such a hospitable reception is the evolution of mere 
good nature. It is the Spirit of Him whose utterance of those simple 
words, which have been inscribed as the text of the Columbian Liberty 
Bell, are already ringing in “The Christ that is to be.” “A new com¬ 
mandment I give unto you. That ye love one another.” 

And the same lips also said: “Other sheep I have which are not of 


416 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and 
there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” Because of such words we 
listen with a new eagerness to all that men have to tell of their faiths; 
and there is no declaration of truth, however old, from whatever source, 
by whomsoever spoken, but has called out the heartiest tokens of 
approval, if only it strikes down to what we feel to be the eternal 
verities underlying our existence. To the surprise of many, these 
declarations often bear a striking similarity to some of the teachings 
of Christianity, when, in reality, the marvel is, that the religion of Jesus 
Christ should be so all-embracing and universal. 

Nor is it to be forgotten that the Christ not simply taught the truth. 
He so embodied it, so lived it, that He is the truth. And Chris¬ 
tianity is not afraid to say that the religion which bears His name is 
grounded not upon truth—the abstract—nor a philosophy, nor an eccle- 
siasticism, nor a ritual, but upon a person; a person so true, so perfect 
in holiness, that we believe, nay, we feel, that He embodies the very 
life and spirit of God. And with this manifestation has come a new 
conception of God as one who is willing to go any length in order to 
seek and to save that which is lost. And it is this truth, God seeking 
man, man serving God; God entering into our experiences of joy or of 
pain, God fairly urging upon us His help and forgiveness. This is the 
Christian s message to all the children of men. It is not simply what 
Christianity has done, it is not simply what Christianity has taught; 
it is what Christ is, that is enduring and vital. Often it has been said 
that the wise men from the east came to His cradle. May there be even 
greater cause for thankfulness in remembering that wise men from the 
west started from His cross 


•/ 


XVI. 

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



27 




















» 

























f •* 



The Holy Scriptures. 


E “ Encyclopaedia Britannica” defines inspira¬ 
tion thus: 

“Inspiration” is used to express the fact 
that holy men of old spake as they were moved 
by the Spirit of God. I he idea is not exclu¬ 
sively Jewish or Christian; pagans have had 
their inspired speakers and writers and their 
ideas of inspiration, and these earlier pagan 
notions have had their effect on some of the 
forms which the Christian doctrine has as¬ 
sumed. 

The classical languages contain many 
words and phrases expressive of this idea. 
Artistic powers and poetic talents, gifts of 
prediction, the warmth of love and the battle 
frenzy, were all ascribed to the power of the 
god possessing the man inspired. And these words were taken over 
into Christian theological writing, and used to describe what Jewish 
and Christian divines have called inspiration. 

In Christian theology inspiration always has to do with the belief 
that God has “wholly committed to writing” His revelation, and that 
men have it permanently, fully, and in an infallibly trustworthy way. 

The doctrine of inspiration in Christian theology contains very 
little reference to the psychological state of the persons inspired, and 
when it does enter into such details we may generally trace their pres¬ 
ence back to the influence of pagan ideas or words. 

it sic 

The real gist of the Reformation doctrine of Scripture was this, 
that Scripture was a means of grace, a means of awakening the new 
life in the heart; that above all the Scripture was the sword of the 
Spirit, and that its main use was to pierce the heart and conscience. 
Inspiration secured that the Scriptures should be instinct with God’s 
power for salvation, able to appeal with the very power of God to the 
hearts and consciences of men, as well as full of the knowledge which 
God has pleased to communicate to man. The Reformers were con¬ 
tent to leave the doctrine of inspiration without much further defini¬ 
tion, but they took the full advantage of the spiritual form of the 
doctrine to use great freedom with the letter of Scripture. 

Their successors, the Protestant Scholastics, acted otherwise. 
They dwelt on the fact that inspiration secured accuracy, rather than 
on the fact that it brought with it spiritual power. Gerhard held that 

419 



420 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


the writers were the “pens,” the “amanuenses,” of the Holy Ghost. 
Calovius and Quenstedt say the same. Quenstedt holds that every¬ 
thing in Scripture comes from the infallible divine assistance and 
direction, from a special suggestion and dictation of the Holy Spirit; 
and he says that because Scripture is inspired it is of infallible truth 
and free from every error; canonical Scripture contains not the very 
slightest error either in fact or in word; whatever things it relates, all 
and every one of them are of the very highest truth, whether they be 
ethical or historical, chronological, topographical, or verbal; there is 
no ignorance, no want of knowledge, no forgetfulness, no lapse of 
memory in Scripture. The framers of the Formula Conse?isus Helvetica 
went further, and declared that the Old Testament was inspired of 
God in its matter, its words, its consonants, its vowels, and its punc¬ 
tuation. 

The Socinians and certain Arminians, such as Episcopius, who 
started with the idea that the Bible is simply a communication of 
knowledge, resuscitated the scholastic idea of partial inspiration. They 
held that inspiration was only required to communicate knowledge 
which the writer could not otherwise obtain, and they usually asserted 
that only the doctrinal parts of the Bible were inspired, while the his¬ 
torical were not. 

Those who hold naturalistic views of revelation reduce inspiration 
to a peculiar aptitude for and sympathy with moral and religious truth. 
Others, although believing in the supernatural character of revelation, 
hold that there is no warrant to suppose anything specially super¬ 
natural about the committal of the revelation to writing, and believe 
that God left His revelation to be recorded in the natural course of 
providence by men who had perhaps a larger share than their fellows 
of the spiritual enlightenment common to all believers. Others again 
have revived the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas that parts of the Bible 
are inspired, and other parts are not. 

The Bible.—The first to use the term biblia in the sense of Bible 
is said to have been Chrysostom, who flourished in the fifth century. 
The word scripture or scriptures, from the Latin scriptura=vjxi\.\ng, 
scrip turce=virit\ngs , conveys the analogous idea that the “Scriptures” 
are alone worthy of being called writings. This use of the word came 
originally from the Latin fathers, but it has been adopted not merely 
by the English, but by the other Christian nations of Europe. The 
high appreciation of the Bible implied in the use of these words arises 
from the fact that it is believed by the vast majority of Christians to 
be (with allowances for minute diversities of reading and errors of 
translation) the actual Word of God, and therefore infallibly true. 
This is implied, though not expressly stated, in the sixth of the Thirty- 
nine Articles: 

“ Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so 
that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not 
to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of 
the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. . . 


421 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

i 

The Westminster Confession of Faith is more specific: 

“The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be 
believed or obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or 
church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the Aifthor thereof, 
and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.”— 
Westminster Confession of Faith , ch. i., § 4. 

The Church of Rome does not differ from the several Protestant 
denominations respecting the divine authority of the books which the 
latter accept as canonical; it combines, however, with them the Apoc¬ 
rypha and church traditions, regarding faith and morals, which Prot¬ 
estants reject. 

Articles of Faith and symbolical books do not always express the 
real belief of all who nominally assent to them; and scattered through 
the several churches are a very large number of persons who hold that 
the Bible contains a revelation from God, instead of being of itself 
“the Word of God”; while a small number deny the Scriptures all 
special inspiration, and deal with them as freely as they would with 
the Mohammedan Koran, the Hindoo Vedas and Puranas, the Sikh 
Grunth, or the Persian Zend Avesta.— American Encyclopcedic Dic- 
tio?iary. 

The Vatican council, 1870, enacted this canon: 

“If anyone shall not receive as sacred and canonical the books of 
Holy Scripture, entire with all their parts, as the Holy Synod of Trent 
has enumerated them, or shall deny that they have been divinely 
inspired, Let him be Anathema .” 

Dr. Seton says: 

“One of the duties incumbent upon the pastors of the church, in 
the conduct of public worship, has ever been the reading of the Script¬ 
ures, with an explanation of what was read or an exhortation derived 
from it. During the Middle Ages, the one course of learning which 
exceeded in importance all other courses, was the study of the Script¬ 
ures; so that it is impossible to read the works of mediaeval scholars 
without perceiving how thoroughly they were acquainted with the 
letter, and imbued with the spirit of Holy Writ. 

“At a later period the Council of Trent ordained that lecture¬ 
ships of sacred Scriptures, where not already founded, were to be 
established in cathedral and collegiate churches and in the monaster¬ 
ies of monks, and asked the public authorities to endow such lecture¬ 
ships—‘so honorable and the most necessary of all’—‘that the heav¬ 
enly treasure of the sacred books, which the Holy Ghost has with the 
greatest liberality delivered unto men, may not lie neglected.’ 

“The Church ardently supports all efforts for a deeper study and 
a profounder knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, nor does she inter¬ 
fere with the interpretation of the sacred text when it is undertaken 
with, at least an implied, subordination to the higher law. 

“ Catholic commentators may differ even from the greatest and 
most orthodox of their predecessors, only they are not at liberty to at¬ 
tach to Scripture a meaning in conflict with the unanimous consent of 
the Fathers or a doctrinal decision of the Church.” 



Dr. Alexander Kohut, New York. 





Influence of the J-J e b rew 5 cr iptures. 

By DR. ALEXANDER KOHUT, of New York. (Jewish.) 



O them who, cradled in the infancy of faith, 
rocked by the violent tempests of adversity 
and tried by passion waves of lurking tempta¬ 
tion; who, seeking virtue find but vice; who, 
striving for the ideal, gain but the bleakest 
summit of realism; who, sorely pressed by 
rude time and ruder destiny and whirled by 
gay balloons of chance into rainbow clouds of 
space, redescend into the sad arena of mortal 
tragedy, only to encounter fresh shipwrecks 
in the turbulent oceans of existence; God is 
the anchor of a new-born hope, the electric 
quickener of life’s uneven current, drifting 
into His harbor of safest refuge from the hur¬ 
ricane of outward seas into the gladsome, 
cheery gulf shores of welcome peace, the placid water’s sacred con¬ 
sciousness, wherein no ship, no craft, no burden and no trust ever 
founders, the tranquil Bible streams. 

Faith is a spark of God’s own flame and nowhere did it burn with 
more persistence and vehemence than in the ample folds of Israel’s 
devotion. With faith as the corner-stone of the future, the glorious 
past of the Jew, suffused with the warmest sunshine of divine efful¬ 
gence and human trust, reflects the most perfect image of individual 
and national existence. Faith—the Bible creed of Israel—was the 
first and most vital principle of universal ethics, and it was the Jew, 
now the Pariah pilgrim of ungrateful humanity, who bequeathed the 
precious legacy to Semitic-Aryan nations; who sowed the healthy 
seeds of irradicable belief in often unfertile ground, but with inex¬ 
haustible vigor infused that inherent vitality of propagation and 
endurance, which forever marks the progress and triumph of God’s 
chosen, though unaccepted people. 

The sonorous clang of the trite adage, “The Hebrews drank of 
the fountain, the Greeks from the stream, and the Romans from the 
pool,” applied by an able critic, is more universally acknowledged 
with the dawn of unbiased reason, turned upon history with the 

423 




424 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Diogenes lantern of searching justice. The religion of Israel is the 
grandest romance of idealism, blended with the sedate realism of ter¬ 
restrial perpetuity. 

Every unprejudiced mind gladly acknowledges that the Bible, the 
divine encyclopedia of unalienable truths and morals, belongs to the 
world, like the sun, the air, the ocean, the rivers, the fountains—the 
common heirloom of humanity. 

The doctrine of divine unity, by collecting all the scattered race 
of beauty and excellence, from every quarter of the universe, and con¬ 
densing them into one overpowering conception—by tracing the innu¬ 
merable rills of thought and feeling to the fountain of an infinite 
mind—surpasses the most elegant and ethereal polytheism immeasur¬ 
ably more than the sun does the “cinders of the elements.” However 
beautiful the mythology of Greece, as interpreted by Wordsworth, it 
must yield without a struggle to the thought of a great One Spirit. 
Compared to those conceptions, how does the fine dream of the pagan 
mythus melt away; Olympus, with its multitude of stately, celestial 
natures dwindles before the solitary, immutable throne of Adonay, the 
poetry as well as the philosophy of Greece shrink before the single 
sentence, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” or before 
any one of these ten majestic commands hurled down amid lurid blaze 
above in a halo of divine revelation! 

The history of the Jewish nation offers to the consideration of the 
philosopher and the chronicler many peculiar circumstances nowhere 
else exemplified in any one branch of the great family of mankind, 
originating from one common stem. In all the characteristics which 
distinguish the Israelites from other nations, the difference is wide. 
The most remarkable of the distinctions which divide the Jewish people 
from the rest of the world is the immutability of their laws. 

Revelation, the primal source of inspiration and prophecy, set the 
universe on fire with a torch of blazing grandeur aglow with the com¬ 
bustible sparks of heaven-imparted gifts and illuminated the softly 
creeping shadows of fast decaying races with the brightest colors of a 
future hope. Revelation, the essence of religious relief, was the guid¬ 
ing star in the unstudded labyrinth of national and individual progress 
and inspiration. The code bequeathed to Israel by their great law¬ 
giver contains, as a modern exegetist, Wilkins, aptly remarked, “the 
only complete body of law ever vouchsafed to a people at one time.” 
The Mosaic ordinance, with its unequaled mastery of detail, its com¬ 
prehensiveness of character, its, universality of human rights and rigid 
suppression of most trivial wrongs, its earnest, nay, enthusiastic avowal 
and championship of truth, justice, morality and above all righteous¬ 
ness—yet the firmest seal of His imperishable document—is the most 
unique marvel of lofty wisdom and divine forethought ever penned into 
the inspired records of ancient history. 

Righteousness, from its patriarchal primitiveness to the full-grown 
glory of prophetic instinct, is the choicest pearl of biblical ethics, and, 
excepting the fervent sentiment of brotherly love, which is so often 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


425 


commended by the sages of the Talmud, embodying the frequent 
teachings of the Nazarene, pleads most eloquently Judea’s claim as 
the first moral preceptor of antiquity. 

Bible ethics, justice, morality, righteousness and all the mighty 
elements embodied in virtuous life are summed up in Judaism’s great 
truths, faithfully portrayed and preserved to mankind in that ponder¬ 
ous volume of poetic inspirations. Israel’s Bible first re-echoed the 
reverberating melody of truth as a musical synonym for omniscience. 

No more plausible evidence of Scripture verity can be cited than 
Abraham, that staunch pioneer of monotheism, who, after mocking the 
household gods of Terah, emerged from his gross surroundings in Ur 
of Chaldean magic, unscathed by the stigma of sinful idolatry and 
prosecuted his noble mission of popularizing the God-idea with una¬ 
bated vigor. The same God, with whom Abraham’s chivalric spirit of 
brother-redeeming love pleaded, Jacob’s dreaming fancy beheld en¬ 
throned on the celestial ladder-top of sterling faith. That very same 
invigorating and omnipresent impulse preserved Joseph’s chastity; 
lured Moses from his flocks to guide a nation’s destiny; led Joshua to 
victory; smote the enemies of Gideon and gave Samson iron strength. 
David’s lyre pealed forth, Solomon’s wisdom lauded, and prophecy 
proclaimed the majesty of God the only truth, in poetry, in rhythmic 
prose and in melody of song What, then, is truth but faith; what, then, 
is faith but trust in His sole unity, and where else so manifest as in 
Judea’s inscribed rock of salvation? 

Israel’s entire history teems with apt illustration to preserve intact 
their sublime doctrine of the All Father, and jealously guard every 
accessory to higher, perfecter conception of the potential Deity— 
Jehovah—the Lord of Hosts. 

We “search the writ” according to its liberal dictates and cannot 
but remark a tacit, unflinching and unbending perseverance, continu¬ 
ally on the alert to comprehend and appropriate a deeper, more 
enlightening idea of God and His ways. “We have seen,” again 
remarks Mathew Arnold, “how in its intuition of God—of that net 
ourselves, of which all mankind from some conception or other—as 
the eternal that makes for righteousness, the Hebrew race found the 
revelation needed to breathe the notion into the laws of morality and 
to make morality religion. This revelation is the capital fact of the 
Old Testament and the source of its grandeur and power. For while 
other nations had the misleading idea that this or that other than right¬ 
eousness is saving, and it is not; that this or that, other than conduct, 
brings happiness, and it does not, Israel had the true idea—that 
righteousness is saving, that to conduct belongs happiness.” 

We have pointed out the priceless benefits conferred upon man¬ 
kind by Israel’s Bible. It only remains to be briefly demonstrated to 
what degree humanity is indebted to Hebrew scriptures for gifts equally 
invaluable, though not so generally accredited to Judaism by the envy 
of modern skeptics. 

On Judea’s soil, that green oasis in the desert of antiquity, there 



Rabbi Joseph Stolz, Chicago 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


427 


blossomed the bud of polite arts, of the so much boasted sciences of 
ater Greece and plagiarizing Rome. Greece and Rome were indebted 
to humble Israel for that reputed familiarity with profound philosophy 
and cognate learning which ascribed to any source and every origin, 
save that here advocated, the wide diffusion of Hebraic wisdom 
among the heathen nations of the past. 

Can Plato, Demosthenes, Cato, Cicero and other thunderers of 
eloquence compete with such lightning rods of magnetic power as 
Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other past orators of Bible 
times? Who wrote nobler history, Moses, Livy or Herodotus? Were 
the dramas and tragedies of Sophocles, yEschylus and Euripides 
worthy of classification with the masterpieces of realism and grand 
cosmogonic conceptions, furnished us in the soul-vibrating account of 
Job’s martyrdom? In poetry and hymnology, the harp of David is 
tuned to sweeter melody than Virgil’s yEneid or Horace’s odes. 
Strabo’s accurate geographical and ethnological accounts are not 
more thorough in detail than scriptural narratives and the famous 
tenth chapter of Genesis. The haughty philosophical maxims of Mar¬ 
cus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca fade into insignificance before the 
edifying discourse and moral chidings of Koheleth, whose very pessi¬ 
mism, in contradistinction to heathenish levity, failed not to inspire 
and instruct. Compare the ethics of Aristotle with those pure gems 
of monition to truth, righteousness and moral chastity contained in the 
Book of Proverbs, as confront even the all-conquering wisdom of Soc¬ 
rates with Solomonic sagacity. “The Zephyrs of Attica were as bland, 
and Helicon and Parnassus were as lofty and verdant before Judea put 
forth her displays of learning and the arts as afterward.” Yet no 
Homer was ever heard reciting the vibrating strains of poetry with 
David. Isaiah and other monarchs of genius and soul culture poured 
i : orth their sublime symphonies in the holy land; yet none of all the 
muses breathed their inspiration over Greece till the spirit of the Most 
High had awakened the soul of letters and of arts in the nation of the 
Hebrews. Not to Egypt, Phoenicia, or Syria, do Greece and her apt 
disciple, Rome, owe their eminence in the entertaining and refined 
branches of learning. They flourished at a period so remote that fable 
replaces fact, and no authentic records—chiefly obtained through a 
comparatively new field in modern exploration—are extant which 
establish an impartial priority of culture and science before the He¬ 
braic age. 

Egypt is accredited with far too much distinction in knowledge 
which she never possessed to any eminent degree. Recent excava¬ 
tions and discoveries from ruins of her ancient cities tend to corrobo¬ 
rate our view. A mass of inscribed granite, a papyrus roll, or a sar¬ 
cophagus, bears the tell-tale message of her standard in taste and her 
progress in art. “They prove,” says Hosmer, “that if she was ever en¬ 
titled to be called the Cradle of Science, it must have been when 
science, owing to the feebleness of infancy, required the use of a cradle. 
But when science had outgrown the appendages of bewildering and 


428 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


tottering infancy, and had reached matured form and strength, Egypt 
was neither her guardian nor her home.” Many of Egypt’s works of 
art, for which an antiquity has been claimed that would place them 
anterior to David and Solomon, have been shown to be compara¬ 
tively modern; while those confessedly of an earlier date have marks 
of an age which may have excelled in compact solidity, but knew lit¬ 
tle or nothing of finished symmetry or grace. Architecture, the boast 
of Greece and the pride of Assyria, whose stately palaces at Nineveh 
are to this day the marvel of the world, attained its loftiest summit oi 
perfection in the noble structure reared by Israel’s mighty hand in 
Jerusalem, of which the holy tabernacle mounted by the cherubim of 
peace and sanctity was the magnificent model. 

No one acquainted with the history of the Hebrews can question 
their pre-eminence in the noble art. The proof of it is found in the 
record that endureth forever. Though the temple at Jerusalem was 
destroyed before Greece became fully adorned with her splendid archi¬ 
tecture, the plan which had been given by inspiration from heaven, 
and according to which the peerless edifice was built, remains written 
at full length in Hebrew scriptures. The dimensions, the form and 
proportions of all the parts are described with minute exactness. 
Everything that could impart grandeur, grace, symmetry to the art 
palace of worship, and which made it to be called for ages “the excel¬ 
lency of beauty,” was placed in the imperishable volume to be con¬ 
sulted by all nations in all ages. 

Wherever we turn, in fact, we are forcibly reminded of Israel’s 
precious legacies to mankind in almost every department of industry. 
We must ever return and sit at the feet of the Hebrew bards, who as 
teachers, as poets, as truthful and earnest men, stand as yet alone— 
unsurmounted and unapproached—the Himalayan mountains of man¬ 
kind. 

The Hebrew scriptures, not mere trickery of fate, is the cause and 
effect of the long life and immortality of Judaism. To us “the 
dictum of a romantic scribe,” unique among all the peoples of the 
earth, it has come undoubtedly to the present day from the most dis¬ 
tant antiquity. Forty, perhaps fifty, centuries rest upon this vener¬ 
able contemporary of Egypt, Chaldea and Troy. The Hebrew defied 
the Pharaohs; with the sword of Gideon he smote the Midianite; in 
Jephthah, the children of Ammon. The purple chariot bands of 
Assyria went back from his gates humbled and diminished. Babylon, 
indeed, tore him from his ancient seats and led him captive by strange 
waters, but not long. He had fastened his love upon the heights of 
Zion, and, like an elastic cord, that love broke not, but only drew with 
the more force as the distance became great. He saw the Hellenic 
flower bud, bloom and wither upon the soil of Greece. He saw the 
wolf of Rome suckled on the banks of the Tiber, then prowl ravenous 
for dominion to the ends of the earth, until paralysis and death laid 
hold upon its savage sinews. 

At last Israel was scattered over the length and breadth of the 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


429 


earth. In every kingdom of the modern world there has been a Jew¬ 
ish element. There are Hebrew clans in China, on the steppes of Cen¬ 
tral Asia, in the desert heat of Africa. The most powerful races have 
not been able to assimilate them. The bitterest persecution, so far 
from exterminating them, has not eradicated a single characteristic. 
In mental and moral traits, in form and feature even, the Jew today is 
the same as when Jerusalem was the peer of Tyre and Babylon. 

And why not strive through the coming ages to live in fraternal 
concord and harmonious unison with all the nations on the globe? 
Not theory but practice, deed not creed, should be the watchword of 
modern races stamped with the blazing characters of rational equity 
and unselfish brotherhood Why not, then, admit the scions of the 
mother religion, the wandering Jew of myth and harsh reality, into 
the throbbing affections of faith-permeating, equitable peoples now 
inhabiting the mighty hemispheres of culture and civilization? 

Three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, imbibed the 
liquid of enlightenment from that virgin spring of truth, and yet they 
are distinct, estranged from each other by dogmatic separatism and a 
fibrous accumulation of prejudice, which yet awaits the redeeming 
champion of old, who with Herculean grasp of irrevocable conviction 
should hurl far away the lead-weight of passion and bigotry, of malice 
and egotism from the historical streams of original truth, equity and 
righteousness. Three religions and now many more are gathered at 
the sparkling fountain of a glorious enterprise in the cause of truth, 
congregated beneath the solid splendor of a powerful throne, wherein 
reclines the new monarch of disenthralling sentiment, a glorious sov¬ 
ereign of God-anointed grace, to examine and to judge with the 
impartial scepter of Israel’s holiest emblem—justice—the merits of a 
nation, who are as irrepressible as the elements, as unconquerable as 
reason and as immortal as the starry firmament of eternal hope. 

The scions of many creeds are convened at Chicago’s succoring 
parliament of religions, aglow with enthusiasm, imbued with the 
courage of expiring fear, electrified with the absorbing anticipation of 
dawning light. The hour has struck. Will the stone of abuse, a bur¬ 
den brave Israel bore for countless centuries, on the rebellious well of 
truth, at last be shattered into merciless fragments by that invention 
of every-day philosophy, the gun-powder of modern war, rational con¬ 
viction; and finally, a blessed destiny, establish peace for all faiths and 
unto all mankind? Who knows? 



Rt. Rev. M^r. Setoo. Newark, N. J. 





Xhe (Catholic Qhurch and the Holy 

§criptures. 

By Rt. Rev. MGR. SETON, of Newark, N. J. 



IBLE is the name now given to the sacred 
books of the Jews and Christians. Indepen¬ 
dently of all considerations of its moral and 
religious advantages, we believe that no book 
has conduced more than the Bible to the 
intellectual advancement of the human race; 
we believe that no book has been to so many 
and so abundantly wealth in poverty, liberty 
in bondage, health in sickness, society in sol¬ 
itude; and as a divinely inspired work, such 
as the testimony of the Jewish nation for the 
greater part of it and the tradition of the 
Christian church for the whole of it, declares 
it to be, it claims our sincerest homage 

The relations of the church to these 
^ Scriptures of the Old and New Testament form an 

Y important part of dogmatic theology and an inter¬ 
esting portion of ecclesiastical history. They have, 
also, been the occasion of religious differences in the Christian body; 
for as the wise Englishman, John Selden, said in his Table Talk of 
two centuries ago, “ ’Tis a great question how we know Scripture to 
be Scripture, whether by the church or by man’s private judgment.” 
We shall not discuss purely controversial matters, but limit ourselves 
to an introductory statement of facts and to a brief consideration of 
the Canon, the Inspiration and the Vulgate edition of Scripture. 

The church is a living society commissioned by Jesus Christ to 
preserve the word of God pure and unchanged. This revealed word 
of God is contained partly in the Holy Scripture and partly in tradi¬ 
tion. The former is called the Written Word of God. Writing, not 
necessarily, indeed, on paper, but as often found on more durable 
materials, such as clay or brick, tablets, stone slabs and cylinders, and 
metal plates, being the art of fixing thoughts in an intelligible and 

431 



432 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


lasting shape, so as to hand them down to other generations and thus 
perpetuate historical records. There is a special congruity that the 
Almighty, from whose instructions not only original spoken, but prob¬ 
ably also written, language was derived, should have put His divine 
revelations in writing through the instrumentality of chosen men* and 
as the human race is 6riginally one, we think that the fact that script¬ 
ures of some sort claiming to be inspired are found in all the civilized 
nations of the past, shows that such conceptions, although outside of 
the orthodox line of tradition, are derived from the primitive unity 
and reiigion of the human family. 

The church teaches that the sacred Scriptures are the written Word 
of God and that He is their author, and consequently she receives 
them with piety and reverence. This gives a distinct character to the 
Bible which no other book possesses, for of no mere human composition, 
however excellent, can it ever be said that it comes directly from God. 
The church also maintains that it belongs to her—and to her alone— 
to determine the true sense of the Scriptures, and that they cannot be 
rightly interpreted contrary to her decision; because she claims to be 
and is the living, unerring authority to whom—and not to those who 
expound the Scripture by the light of private judgment—infallibility 
was promised and given. 

Her teaching is the rule of faith, since she is a visible, perpetual 
and universal organization, possessed of legislative, executive and 
judicial functions. She is historically independent of the Holy Script¬ 
ures, some parts thereof being anterior and other parts subsequent to 
her own existence, but receives safeguards and preserves them as her 
most sacred deposit, somewhat as, to make a comparison taken from 
our civil polity, the government of the United States in its three co¬ 
ordinate branches venerates, interprets and executes the American 
constitution. 

One of the duties incumbent upon the pastors of the church, in 
the conduct of public worship, has ever been the reading of the Script¬ 
ures with an explanation of what was read or an exhortation derived 
from it. During the middle ages, owing to the lack of those aids and 
appliances, such especially as archaeology and comparative philology, 
learned and scientific as contrasted with scholastic and devotional in¬ 
terpretation of the Holy Scripture, although never quite neglected, oc¬ 
cupied relatively only a small share in the studies of those times. 

The Catholic principles as to the general use of the Bible may be 
deduced from the Tridentine decree, which was particularly directed 
against those irreverent and sometimes blasphemous expounders of 
holy writ, whom the council qualifies as “ petulant spirits.” According 
to our view, the Bible does not contain the whole of revealed truth, 
nor is it necessary for every Christian to read and understand it. The 
church existed as an organized society, having powers from her Divine 
Founder to teach all nations, before the Scriptures as a whole existed 
and before there was question or dispute about any part of the Script¬ 
ures. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


433 


The redemption by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being the 
central idea of all Christian instruction, the Old Testament subjects in 
these rare and valuable works were chosen for their typical significance 
and relation to it, and thus the people were instructed in a manner not 
less calculated to excite their piety than that which is conveyed by 
means of speech. During this present century several popes have 
warned the faithful against societies which distribute vernacular ver¬ 
sions, often corrupt ones, with the avowed purpose of unsettling the 
belief of simple-minded Catholics; but it is unjust to conclude from 
this that the church is not solicitous for her children to read the Bible 
if this be correctly rendered into their language and they possess the 
necessary qualifications and proper disposition. 

The Christian church did not receive the canon of Old Testament 
Scripture from the Jewish synagogue, because there was no settled 
Hebrew canon until long after the promulgation of the Gospel. The 
inspired writers of the New Testament did not enumerate the books 
received by Christ and His disciples. Nevertheless, we are certain that 
the Septuagint version, or translation of the Old Testament Scriptures 
into Greek, made some part (the Pentateuch) at Alexandria about 280 
years B. C., and the rest, made also in Egypt before 133 B. C., which 
contains several books now thrown out by the Jews, was favorably 
viewed and almost constantly quoted from by them, so that Saint 
Augustine says that it is “of most grave and pre-eminent authority.” 
It is supposed to be the oldest of all the versions of the Scriptures and 
was commonly used in the church for four centuries, since from it was 
made that very early Latin translation which was used in the western 
part of the empire before the introduction of Saint Jerome’s Vulgate. 

It was held in great repute for a long time by the Jews and read 
in their synagogues, until it became odious to them on account of the 
arguments drawn from it by the Christians. From it the great body 
of the fathers have quoted, and it is still used in the Greek church. 
This celebrated translation contains all the books of the Old Testa¬ 
ment which Catholics acknowledge to be genuine. The Christian 
writers of the first three centuries were unanimous in accepting these 
books as inspired; and the letter of Pope Saint Clement, written about 
A. D. 96, indicates that a scriptural canon must already have been 
fixed upon by apostolical tradition in the church at Rome, since the 
author cites from almost every one of the books of the Old Testament, 
including those called deutero-canonical and rejected by the Jews. 

At the council of Florence the canon was not discussed. “A 
clear proof,” says Dixon in his General Introduction to the Sacred 
Scripture, “that the Greek and Latin churches were then unanimous 
upon this point.” At this period, A. D. 1439, the decree of union 
drawn up by Pope Eugene IV for the Orientals who came to Rome 
to abjure their errors, gives the canon as it had always been held by 
his predecessors. In the next century the Bible having become an 
occasion of bitter religious controversy, the canonicity of the Script¬ 
ures was thoroughly discussed and forever settled for Catholics by 

28 


434 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the council of Trent, which uses these words in the fourth session, 
held on the 8th day of April, A. D. 1546: The synod,“following the 
examples of the orthodox fathers, receives and venerates with an 
equal affection of piety and reverence, all the books, both of the Old 
and of the New Testament, seeing that one God is the author of both; 
and it has thought it meet that a list of the sacred books be inserted 
in this decree, lest a doubt may arise in anyone’s mind which are the 
books that are received by this synod.” 

Inspiration is a certain influence of the Holy Spirit upon the mind 
of a writer urging him to write, and so acting upon him that his work 
is truly the word of God. Father, since Cardinal, Franzelin’s second 
thesis on the sacred Scriptures, in his course at the Roman college in 
1864, states the Catholic idea of inspiration in the following words: 

“As books may be called divine in several senses, the Scriptures, 
according to Catholic doctrine contained both in the apostolic writ¬ 
ings and in unbroken tradition, must be held to be divine in this sense, 
that they are the books of God as their efficient cause and that God 
is the author of these books by His supernatural action upon their 
human writers, which action is styled inspiration in ecclesiastical 
terminology derived from the Scriptures themselves.” 

The Holy Scriptures have been translated into every language, but 
among these almost innumerable versions one only, which is called the 
Vulgate, is authorized and declared to be “authentic” by the church. 
The belief of the faithful being that the doctrinal authority of the 
church extends to positive truths and “dogmatic facts” which, although 
not revealed, are necessary for the exposition or defense of revelation. 

The Vulgate has an interesting history. It is the common opin¬ 
ion that, from the first age of Christianity, one particular version made 
from the Septuagint, was received and sanctioned by the church in 
Rome and used throughout the west. Among individual Christians 
almost innumerable Latin translations were current, but only one of 
these, called the Old Latin, bore an official stamp. 

These translations, corrections and portions left untouched by 
Saint Jerome, being brought together form the Vulgate, which, how¬ 
ever, did not displace the old version for two centuries, although it 
spread rapidly and constantly gained strength, until about A. D 600 
it was generally received in the churches of the west and has continued 
ever since in common use. In the collect for the feast of Saint Jerome, 
September 30th, he is called, “A doctor mighty in expounding Holy 
Scripture.” 


1 ruthfulness of \~\o\y Scriptures. 

By Rev. CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D. D., of New York. 


E time alotted for a paper like this is so short 
that I can only treat the subject very cursorily 
and with many gaps, which every one of you 
will probably notice. All the great historic 
religions have sacred books which are re¬ 
garded as the inspired word of God. Prom¬ 
inent among those sacred books are the Holy 
Scriptures of the Christian church. The his¬ 
tory of the Christian church shows that it is 
the intrinsic excellence of these Holy Script¬ 
ures which has given them the control of so 
large a portion of our whole race. With a 
few exceptions the Christian religion was not 
extended by force of arms or by the arts of 
statesmanship, but by the holy lives and 
faithful teaching of self-sacrificing men and women, who had firm faith 
in the truthfulness of the Holy Scriptures and were able to convince 
men in all parts of the world that they are faithful guides to God and 
salvation. 

We may now say confidently to all men: “All the sacred books of 
the world are now accessible to you; study them; compare them; rec¬ 
ognize all that is good and noble and true in them all and tabulate 
results, and you will be convinced that the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments are true, holy and divine.” When we have gone 
searchingly through all the books of other religions we will find that 
they are as torches of various sizes and brilliance lighting up the dark¬ 
ness of the night, but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Tes¬ 
taments are like the sun shining in the heavens and lighting up the 
whole world. 

We are living in a scientific age, which demands that every tradi¬ 
tional statement shall be tested. Science explores the earth in its 
height and breadth in search of truth; it explores the heavens in order 
to solve the mysteries of the universe; it investigates all the monu¬ 
ments of history, whether of stone or of metal, and that man must be 
lacking in intelligence, or in observation at least, who imagines that 

435 





Rev. Charles A. Briggs, 


D. New York. 




THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


437 


the sacred books of the Christian religion or the institutions of the 
Christian church shall escape the criticism of this age. It will not do 
to oppose science with religion or criticism with faith. 

Criticism makes it evident that the faith which shrinks from criti¬ 
cism is a faith so weak and uncertain that it excites suspicion as to its 
life and reality. Science goes on, confident that every form of religion 
which resists this criticism will ere long crumble into dust. All depart¬ 
ments of human investigation sooner or later come in contact with the 
Christian Scriptures; ail find something that accords with them or con¬ 
flicts with them, and the question forces itself upon us, Can we main¬ 
tain the truthfulness of the Holy Scriptures in the face of modern 
science? We are obliged to admit that there are scientific errors in 
the Bible, errors of astronomy, geology, zoology, botany and anthro¬ 
pology. In all these respects there is no evidence that the authors of 
the Scriptures had any other knowledge than that possessed by their 
contemporaries. Their statements are such as indicate ordinary obser¬ 
vation of the phenomena of life. They had not that insight, that 
grasp of conception and power of expression in these matters such as 
they exhibited when writing concerning matters of religion. 

If it was not the intent of God to give to the ancient world the 
scientific knowledge of our nineteenth century, why should any one 
suppose that the Divine Spirit influenced them in relation to any such 
matters as science? Why should they be kept from mis-statements, 
misconceptions and errors in such respects? The Divine Spirit wished 
to use them as religious teachers, and so long as they made no mis¬ 
takes in that respect they were trustworthy and reliable, even if they 
erred in such matters as come in contact with modern science There 
are historical mistakes in the Bible, mistakes of chronology and geog¬ 
raphy, discrepancies and inconsistencies which cannot be removed 
by any proper method of interpretation. There are such errors as we 
are apt to find in modern history. There is no evidence that the writ¬ 
ers of the Scriptures received any of their history by revelation from 
God. There is no evidence that the Divine Spirit corrected these nar¬ 
ratives. 

The purpose of the sacred writers was to give us the history of 
God’s redemptive workings. This made it necessary that there should 
be no essential errors in the redemptive facts and agencies, but did 
not make it necessary that there should be no mistakes in places, dates 
and persons, so long as these did not change the redemptive lessons 
or redemptive facts. None of the mistakes which have been discov¬ 
ered disturb the religious lessons of the Biblical history, and those les¬ 
sons are the only ones whose truthfulness we are concerned to defend. 
[Applause.] Higher criticism recognizes faults of grammar, of rhetoric 
and logic in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, but errors in these 
formal things do not mar the truthfulness of the religious instruction 
itself. Higher criticism shows that most of the books were composed 
by unknown authors; that they passed through the hands of a consid¬ 
erable number of unknown editors. In this process of editing, arrang- 


438 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


ing, subtraction and reconstruction, extending through so many cent¬ 
uries, what evidence have we that these unknown editors were kept 
from error in all their work? 

They were guided by the Divine Spirit in their comprehension and 
expression of the divine instruction, but, judging also from their work, 
it seems most probable that they were not guided by the Divine Spirit 
in grammar, rhetoric, logic, expression, arrangement of material or 
general editorial work. They were left to those errors which even the 
most faithful and scrupulous of writers will sometimes make. The 
science which approaches the Bible from without and the science 
which studies it from within agree as to the essential facts of the case. 
Now, can the truthfulness of Scripture be maintained by those 
who recognize these errors? There is no reason why the substantial 
truthfulness of the Bible shall not be consistent with circumstantial 
errors. God did not speak Himself in the Bible except a few words 
recorded here and there; He spoke in much greater portions of the 
Old Testament through the voices and pens of the human authors 
of the Scriptures. Did the human minds and pens always deliver the 
inerrant word? 

Even if all writers possessed of the Holy Spirit were merely pass¬ 
ive in the hands of God, the question is, Can the human voice and pen 
express truth of the infinite God? How can an imperfect word, an 
imperfect sentence express the divine truth? It is evident that the 
writers of the Bible were not, as a rule, in an ecstatic state. The Holy 
Spirit suggested to them the divine truths they were to teach. They 
received them by intuition, and framed them in imagination and fancy. 
Then, if the divine truth passed through the conception and imagina¬ 
tion of the human mind, did the human mind receive it fully without 
any fault or shadow of error; did the human mind add anything to it 
or color it; was it delivered in its entirety exactly as it was received? 
How can we be sure of this when we see the same doctrine in such a 
variety of forms, all partial and all inadequate? 

All that we can claim is inspiration and accuracy for that which 
suggests the religious lessons to be imparted. God is true He is the 
truth. He cannot lie; He cannot mislead or deceive His creatures. 
But the question arises, When the infinite God speaks to finite man, 
must He speak words which are not error? This depends not only 
upon God’s speaking, but on man’s hearing, and also of the means of 
communication between God and man. It is necessary to show the 
capacity of man to receive the Word before we can be sure that he 
transmitted it correctly. The inspiration of the Holy Scriptures does 
not carry with it inerrancy in every particular; it was sufficient if the 
divine truth was given with such clearness as to guide men ario-ht in 
religious life. 

The errors of Holy Scripture are not errors of falsehood or deceit, 
but of ignorance, inadvertence, partial and inadequate knowledge and 
of incapacity to express the whole truth of God which belonged to man 
as man. Just as light is seen, not in its pure unclouded state, but in 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


439 


the beautiful colors of the spectrum, so it is that the truth of God, its 
revelation and communication to man, met with such obstacles in 
human nature. Men are capable of receiving it only in its diverse 
operations and diverse manners as it comes to them through the 
diverse temperaments and points of view of the biblical writers. The 
religion of the Old Testament is a religion which includes somethings 
hard to reconcile in an inerrant revelation. The sacrifice of Jephtha’s 
daughter, the divine command to Abraham to offer up his son as a 
burnt offering and other incidents seem unsuited to divine revelation. 
The New Testament taught that sacrifices must be of broken, contrite 
hearts and humble and cheerful spirits. What pleasure could God 
take in smoking altars? How could the true God prescribe such 
puerilities? 

We can only say that God w r as training Israel to the meaning of 
the higher sacrifices. The offering up of children and domestic ani¬ 
mals was part of a preparatory discipline. But it was provisional and 
temporal discipline. It was the form necessary then to clothe the 
divine law of sacrifice in the early stages of revelation. They were 
the object lessons by which the children of the ancient world could be 
trained to understand the inerrable law of sacrifice for man. St. Paul 
calls them the weak and beggarly rudiments, the shadow of the things 
to come. 

We cannot defend the morals on the Old Testament at all points. 
Nowhere in the Old Testament w r as polygamy or slavery condemned. 
The time had not come in the history of the world when they could 
be condemned. Is God to be held responsible for these twin relics of 
barbarism because He did not condemn, but, on the contrary, recognized 
them and restrained them in the early stages of His revelation? The 
patriarchs are not truthful. Their age seems to have had little com¬ 
prehension of the principles of truth, yet Abraham was faithful to 
God, and so faithful under temptation and trial that he became the 
father of the faithful, and from that point of view the friend of God. 
David was a sinner, a very wicked sinner, but he was a very penitent 
sinner, and showed such a devout attachment to the worship of God 
that his sins, though many, were all forgiven him, and his life, as a 
whole, exhibits such generosity, courage, human affection and such 
heroism and patience under suffering, and such self-restraint under 
magnificent prosperity, such nobility and grandeur of character alto¬ 
gether that we must admire him and love him as one of the best of 
men, and we are not surprised that the heart of the infinite God went 
out to him. Many of the stories of revenge in the Old Testament 
stand out in glaring contrast to the picture of Jesus Christ praying for 
His enemies, and it is the story of Christ that lifts us into a different 
ethical air from any of the Old Testament. 

We cannot regard these things in the Old Testament as inerrable, 
in the light of the moral character of Christ and the moral character 
of God as He reveals it. And yet we may well understand that the Old 
Testament times were not ripe for the higher revelation of His will 


440 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


such as would guide His people in the right direction, with as steady 
and rapid a pace as they were capable of making. Jesus Christ teaches 
the true principle. You may judge the ethics of the Old Testament 
when He repealed the Mosaic laws of divorce. He said: “Moses, for 
your hardness of heart suffers you to put away your wives, but from 
the beginning it hath not been so.” In other words, Mosaic law of 
divorce was not in accord with the original institution of marriage, or 
with the mind and will of the holy God. 

God revealed Himself partially to the people of the Old Testa¬ 
ment in a way sufficient for their purposes of preparatory discipline, 
which revelation was to disappear forever when it had accomplished 
its purpose. The laws of the Old Testament have all been cast down 
by the Christian church, with the single exception of ten laws; and 
with reference to the fourth of these Jesus Christ says: “The Sabbath 
was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” The doctrine of the 
creation is set forth in a great variety of beautiful poetical representa¬ 
tions, which give in the aggregate a grand conception of the creation, 
a fuller conception than the ordinary doctrine drawn from an interpre¬ 
tation of the first and second chapter of Genesis. I grant He was con¬ 
ceived as the Father of the nations and of the kings. But as our Father 
made known to us through Jesus Christ, He was not known to the Old 
Testament dispensation. The profound depth of sympathy of God 
and of Jesus Christ were not yet manifested. 

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity was not yet revealed. But there 
is a difference in God’s revelation in these other successive layers of 
the Old Testament writing, which is like the march of an invincible 
army. It is true there are times when there are expressions of the 
jealousy of God and a cruel disregard of human sufferings, all of which 
betrayed the inadequacy of ancient Israel to understand their God. 
We all know that the true God, whom we all love and worship, does 
not agree with these ancient conceptions. The truthfulness of the 
teachings of the doctrine of God is not destroyed by occasional inac¬ 
curacies among the teachings. 

The doctrine of man of the Old Testament is a noble doctrine. 
Unity of brotherhood of the race in origin and destiny is established 
in the Old Testament as nowhere else. The origin and development 
of sin finds a response in the experience of mankind. The ideal of 
righteousness and the original plan of God for man, His ultimate 
destiny for man is held up as a banner over the heads of the people. 
Surely these are inspirations; they are faithful, they are divine. But 
there are doubtless expressions of faulty psychology and occasional 
exaggerations of mere external forms in ceremonial worship; but these 
do not mar, but rather serve to enhance our estimate of their value for 
all of that in the Scriptures which binds our race to all that is good in 
the history of the past, created and given by holy God for the welfare 
of humanity. 

The scheme of redemption is so vast, so comprehensive, so far 
reaching,, that the Christian church has even thus far failed to fully 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


44 ) 


comprehend it. All evil is to be banished. There is to come in a 
reign of universal peace. There is to be a new heaven and a new earth 
and a new Jerusalem, from which the wicked will be excluded. Such 
ideals of redemption are divine ideals which the human race has 
not yet attained, and which we can only partially and inadequately 
comprehend. If, in the course of training for these ideals of redemp¬ 
tion for God’s people, they have made mistakes, it is quite sure that 
forgiveness of sins was appropriated without any explanation of its 
grounds. 

The sacrifices of the New were unknown in the Old Testament. It 
is the mercy of God which is the forgiveness of sins. There is a lack 
of appreciation in the Old Testament of the richness of faith. It was 
Jesus Christ who first gave faith its unique place in the order of salva¬ 
tion—the doctrine of holy love; the doctrine of the future life and 
of the resurrection from the dead. Thus in every department of 
doctrine the Old Testament has only advanced through the centuries. 
The several periods of Biblical literature, of unfolding of the doctrines 
prepared the way for a full revelation in the New Testament. That 
revelation looked only at the end, the highest ideals, that what would 
be accomplished in the last century of human time; that would be a 
revelation for all men, but it would be of no use to any other century 
but the last. 

But man must be prepared for the present as well as for the future. 
Man must have something for every century of human history, a reve¬ 
lation for the barbarian as well as for the Greek, the Gentile as well as 
the Jew, the dark-minded African as well as the open-minded Euro¬ 
pean, the South Sea Islander as well as the Asiatic, the child as well 
as the man. It is just in this respect that the Holy Scriptures in the 
New Testament are so permanent and have in them religious instruc¬ 
tions for the world. They were designs for the training of Israel in 
every stage of their development, and so they will train all minds in 
every stage of their development. 

It does no harm to the advanced student to look back upon the 
uneducated years of his youthful days. It does not harm the Christian 
to see the many imperfections, crudities and errors of the more ele¬ 
mentary instructions of the Old Testament. Nor does it destroy his 
faith of the truthfulness of the Divine Word because it has passed 
through human hands. The infallible will has all the time been at 
work using the imperfect medium, training them to their utmost 
capacity, to get man to raise them, to advance them in the true relig¬ 
ion. The great books are always pointing forward and upward. They 
are always extending in all directions They are now, as they always 
have been, true and faithful guides to God and all the highest. They 
are now, as they always have been, trustworthy and reliable in their 
religious instruction. They are now, as they always have been, alto¬ 
gether truthful in their testimony to the heart and experience of 
mankind. 


The World’s Seven Bibles. 


HERE are seven Bibles accepted by different 
religionists. 

1. The Pentateuch was written by Moses 
who lived and wrote 1,500 years before the 
Christian era That portion of the Bible is 
therefore the oldest human composition 
unless the book of Job antedates it. The 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
constitute the Christian’s Bible. 

2. The Hindu Veda, or that portion of it 
called the Rig-Veda, was in process of com¬ 
position a century or two after, though it was 
not so early reduced to writing, A. D., 1400. 

3. The Zendavesta of the Parsees or Per¬ 
sians, contains the sayings of Zoroaster, who 
lived about 1200 B. C. 

4. The Chinese P'ive Kings, the oldest 
Chinese sacred writings, date about 1100 B. C. 
may date as early as 300 B. C. They are the 

sacred books of the Buddhists. 

6. The Koran, the Mohammedan Bible is a compilation from the 
Old and New Testaments and from the Jewish Talmud, and was 
made about 700 A. D. 

7. The Eddas, the Scandinavian sacred books were given to the 
world A. D., 1400. 



5. The Tripitaka 


442 



XVII. 

THE ORTHODOX GREEK CHURCH. 






The Greek Catholic Church. 


HE Eastern or Greek Church is that of the old 
Eastern Empire, which, prior to the Turkish 
conquest, had its metropolis at Constanti¬ 
nople, as distinguished from the Western 
Church, which had its capital at Rome, the 
church of the people speaking the Greek lan¬ 
guage rather than that of the Greek nation. 
That the Eastern and Western Churches 
would first disagree, and then separate, was 
insured from the first by the difference in their 
mental constitution. The Greeks were notable 
for intense intellectual acuteness, which they 
used to frame hair-splitting subtleties of doc¬ 
trine. The Romans, on the contrary, who had 
the imperial instinct, employed the new faith 
as a means of building up again a world-em¬ 
bracing dominion, with the “eternal city” as its capital. The first 
variance between the East and the West arose in the second century 
regarding the time of keeping Easter. The disputes which succeeded 
were chiefly as to personal dignity. As long as Rome was the 
metropolis of the empire, the Bishop of Rome had indisputably the 
most important see in the Church; but when, on May 11, 330, Con¬ 
stantine removed the seat of government to Byzantium (Constanti¬ 
nople), the bishop of the new metropolis became a formidable rival 
to his ecclesiastical brother at Rome. In the second General Council, 
that of Constantinople, A. D. 381, the Bishop of Constantinople was 
allowed to sit next to the Bishop of Rome; by the 28th canon of the 
Synod of Chalcedon, A. D. 403, he was permitted to enjoy an equal 
rank. In 588, John, Patriarch of Constantinople, assumed the title of 
oecumenical or universal bishop, for which he was denounced by Pope 
Gregory the Great. Disputes in the eighth century about image- 
worship widened the breach, as did the continued rejection by the 
Greek Church of the word Filioque , asserting the procession of the 
Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father, introduced by 
the second Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381. The last General 
Council, in which the Churches of the East and the West were united, 
was the Seventh, or Second Council of Nice, A. D. 787. The feud 
continued through the ninth and on to the eleventh century. In the 

445 




446 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


thirteenth an effort was made by Michael Palaeologus to promote a 
reunion of the two great churches at the Council of Florence, but all 
was in vain. They have remained separate till now. Efforts are said 
to be on foot looking to the union of the Greek and Roman churches. 

The Bible as now interpreted by tradition is the rule of faith. 
Regarding the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the Atonement, and the 
work of the Holy Spirit, the Greek Church holds the ordinary faith of 
Christendom. Regarding what is termed the procession of the Holy 
Ghost, the East holds that he proceeded from the Father only, while 
the churches of the West believe that he did so from the Father and 
the Son (Fifth of the Thirty-nine Articles). With regard to the 
decrees of God, the Greek tenets are what would now be called 
strongly Arminian. Worship of a superior or of an inferior kind is 
rendered to the Virgin Mary, to saints and angels. The secular 
clergy are enjoined to marry once, and with a virgin, and may by a 
dispensation marry more than once. Images are in use. The com¬ 
munion is administered even to the laity in both kinds. The doctrine 
of purgatory is not accepted. Baptism is by immersion, and is fol¬ 
lowed by chrism or annointing. The government is episcopal. Except¬ 
ing the Church of Rome, the Greek Church is the largest Christian 
organization, though it would be only the third if the several Protes¬ 
tant Churches were united into one. It is the most numerous Christian 
body in the Turkish empire, and has a patriarch at Constantinople. 
It has many adherents also in the heterogeneous Austrian empire. 
The Russian emperor Nicholas delighted to call it “the orthodox 
faith.”— America?i Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

The Russian Greek Church is the national church of Russia. It is 
an offshoot from the Greek church, the conversion of the Russians to 
Christianity having been effected by Greek missionaries. About 
A. D. 900, a metropolitan was consecrated at Constantinople for the 
see of Kiew, the capital of a Grand Duke. In 955 the Russian prin¬ 
cess Olga went to Constantinople to be baptized. In 988 Vladimir, the 
Great, was also baptized, married the sister of the Greek emperor, and 
took active steps to spread Christianity in his dominions. In 1223 the 
Mongol Tartars invaded the country, and destroyed Kiew in 1240. In 
1299, the seat of the metropolitan see was removed to Vladimir, and 
subsequently to Moscow. In 1415 a separation took place between the 
Russian and Polish churches. In 1702, Peter the Great swept away 
the dignity of patriarch and proclaimed himself head of the Church. 
A Holy Synod was constituted to counsel and assist him in his gov¬ 
ernment. The tenets of the Russian Church are essentially those of 
the parent Greek Church. There are many dissenters. The czar is 
the real head of the Russian Greek Church. 

The Greek Church is sub-divided into sects among which are 
divergences from the orthodox faith, though the religious heads are 
more or less subject to the patriarch at Constantinople. The details 
of worship, belief and customs of marriage and burial differ somewhat 
among the Georgian, Nestorian, Monophysite Coptic and Armenian 
and Russian branches of the Greek Church. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


447 


The Coptic Church.—The remnants of the once numerous Church 
of Egypt, that which had the celebrated school at Alexandria. It 
broke off from the body Catholic in the embracing the Monophysite 
doctrine, viz., that not two natures, but only one, existed in Christ, a 
view from which it has never since departed. Being tyrannized over 
by the Greeks, they cheerfully submitted to the Mohammedans, under 
Amru ben Elaas, in A. D. 638, and aided him in 640, to take Alexan¬ 
dria. Since then they have been trodden under foot by the Moham¬ 
medans. About 250,000 Copts still exist in Egypt, mostly in its upper 
province. They have a patriarch, bishops, presbyters, archdeacons, 
deacons, sub-deacons, lectors, cantors, and exorcists. The Coptics 
have held the patriarchal chair in Alexandria for centuries. 

The Monophysites are those who, with Eutyches, believed that 
there was only one nature in Christ, namely, that of the Word, who 
became incarnate, and that the divine and human elements in that one 
nature were blended as the body and soul in man. In the sixth cent¬ 
ury, when the Monophysites were in considerable adversity, their 
prosperity was restored by the eloquence and zeal of a certain monk, 
Jacobus or James, surnamed Baradaeus or Zanzalus. He died at Edessa 
in A. D. 578. From him the Monophysites are often called Jacobites. 
They established two bishops or patriarchs, one at Alexandria, with 
jurisdiction over Egypt and Abyssinia; and the other at Antioch, with 
jurisdiction over Syria and Armenia. When the Mohammedans were 
struggling for power, it was their policy to protect all heretical sects 
with the view of making them thorns in the sides of the Church. They 
did so at first to the Monophysites, but afterward oppressed them. In 
the seventh century the Monophysite originated the Monothelite con¬ 
troversy. The Egyptians and the Abyssinians are still Monophysites. 

The Eutychians.—The followers of Eutyches, a presbyter and 
abbot of Constantinople. The general church holding that Christ pos¬ 
sessed two natures, the Divine and the human, but only one person, 
Nestorius departed from what was and is still deemed “orthodoxy” 
upon the subject, by attributing to Jesus two persons instead of one. 
Eutyches, being very much opposed to Nestorian views, went to the 
opposite extreme, and declared that there was in Christ but one nature 
—that of the Word, which became incarnate. Having in A. D. 448 
given publicity to these views, he was condemned. In the same year 
he appealed to a council held at Ephesus, under the presidency of his 
friend Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, and that assembly acquitted 
him of heresy. The Council of Chalcedon, considered the fourth Gen¬ 
eral Council, held in 451, reversed the previous decision, and con¬ 
demned Eutyches. His followers were called also Monophysites. 

Monothelitism.—The Greek emperor Heraclius, having consulted 
Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, a Syrian, descended from 
Monophysite parents, as to how that sect could be reconciled to the 
church, the prelate gave it as his opinion that it might be held, with¬ 
out prejudice to the truth or to the authority of the Council of Chal¬ 
cedon, which had condemned the Monophysites, that, after the union 


448 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


of the two natures in Christ, there was but one will and one operation 
of will. In 630 Heraclius issued an edict, requiring the acceptance of 
this tenet, and for a while beseemed successful; but in 633 Sophronius, 
a monk of Palestine, opposed Monothelitism at the Council of Alex¬ 
andria, and the following year, being made Patriarch of Jerusalem, he 
assembled a council and condemned it. Sergius of Constantinople 
still maintained his old opinion, and in 639 drew up, in the name 
of the emperor, an Ecthesis, or formula of faith. The same year 
Pope John IV 7 ., in a council held at Rome, rejected the Ecthesis and 
condemned the Monothelites. They were again condemned in the 
sixth CEcumenical Council (Constantinople), held 680-681. The 
Maronites of Lebanon embraced Monothelitism, but were reconciled 
to the church in 1182. 

Chaldaic Christians.—The chief name given in the East to the 
interesting sect more commonly known in the West as Nestorians. In 
parts of India they are called St. Thomas Christians, from the errone¬ 
ous notion that they were first converted to Christianity by the Apos¬ 
tle Thomas. Their patriarch resides in a monastery near Mosul, not 
far from the site of ancient Nineveh. Like Nestorius, they attribute 
to Jesus two natures, each with its own personality. They reject im¬ 
age worship. In their liturgic services they employ the Syriac lan¬ 
guage. When first they arose, in the fifth century, they were perse¬ 
cuted by the Eastern Church, but after the rise of the Arabian “ prophet ” 
they found favor with the Mohammedans, whose policy it was to sup¬ 
port all detached sects against the Catholic Church, which they feared. 
Afterward they became so noted for missionary work as to elicit the 
admiration even of the historian Gibbon. Within the present century 
they have suffered severely from Mohammedan fanaticism. American 
and other missionaries have also diffused Protestantism among them. 

Nestorianism.—The doctrine taught by Nestorius, Bishop of Con¬ 
stantinople, and one of the school of Theodore of Mopsuestia, that 
there were two persons as well as two natures in Jesus Christ, and that 
the Virgin Mary was in no sense Theotokos, or Mother of God, as she 
was the mother of the man Jesus and not of the Word. This doctrine 
was condemned by the Council of Ephesus, convened by Pope Celes- 
tine I., in A. D. 431. Nestorius was deposed, and the use of the 
Nicene Creed made obligatory. Nestorianism made rapid strides in 
the east, and Cardinal Newman says that in the eleventh century “ its 
numbers, with those of the Monophysites are said to have surpassed 
those of the Greek and Latin Churches together.” Since 1553 a por¬ 
tion of the Nestorians have been in communion with Rome, and are 
known as Chaldeans. Blunt was of the opinion that Nestorius did not 
hold the doctrine of a dual nature, but that his chief offense in the 
eyes of the orthodox was opposition to the growing devotion to the 
Virgin Mary. 

The Armenians agree generally with the Monophysites, though 
they differ in certain minor details. They accept the Apostles’ Creed 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


449 


and the Nicene Creed. They hold that Christ descended into hell and 
liberated all the lost. 

The differences between the sects of the Greek Church seems 
slight to outside observers, though doubtless important to themselves. 

The nominal heads of the Greek Church are the patriarchs of 
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. The patriarch of 
Constantinople is the ecclesiastical head of all branches of the Greek 
Church. 

The Raskolinki are people separated from the Russian Greek 
Church. The separation began in 1666. They are zealous in adhering 
to the letter of Scripture, and are scrupulously pious and austere. 



Dionysios Latas, Archbishop of Zante, Greece 














The O rt hodox Qreek Qhurch. 

By The Most Rev. DIONYSIOS LATAS, Archbishop of Zante, 

Greece. 



EVEREND ministers of the eminent name of 
God, the creator of the world and of man: 
Ancient Greece prepared the way for Chris¬ 
tianity and rendered smooth the path for 
the diffusion and propagation of it in the 
world Greece undertook to develop Chris¬ 
tianity and formed,and systemized a Christian 
church; that is the church of the east, the 
original Christian church, which for this rea¬ 
son historically and justly may be called the 
mother of the Christian churches. [Ap¬ 
plause.] The original establishment of the 
Greek church is directly referred to the 
presence of Jesus Christ and His apostles. 
The coming of the Messiah, from which the God 
was to originate in this world, was at a fixed point of 
time, as the Apostle Paul said it was to be. The fullness of this point 
of time ancient Greece was predestined to point out and determine. 
Greece had so developed letters, arts, sciences, philosophy and every 
other form of progress that in comparison with it all other nations 
were exhausted. For this reason the inhabitants of that happy land 
used rightly and properly to say: “Whoever is not a Greek is a bar¬ 
barian.” But while at that time, under Plato and Aristotle, Greek 
philosophy had arrived at the highest phase of its development, 
Greece at that very period, after these great philosophers, began to 
decline and fall. The Macedonian and Roman armies gave a definite 
blow to the political independence and national liberty of Greece, but 
at the same time opened up to Greece a new career of spiritual life and 
brought it into immediate contact and intercommunication with 
other nations and peoples of the earth. 

Tracing the effect of Grecian philosophy of the Neo-Platonic 
school upon the faith which came from the east, the archbishop con¬ 
tinued: 

When the Roman empire began to fall Christianity had to under- 

451 






452 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


take the great struggle of acquiring a superiority over all other re- 
ligions that it might demolish the partition walls which separated race 
from race, nation from nation. [Great applause.] It is the work of 
Christianity to bring all men into one spiritual family, into the love of 
one another, and into the belief of one supreme God. [Applause.] 
Mary, the most blessed of all human kind, appears and brings forth 
the expected divine nature revealed to Plato. She brings forth the 
fulfillment of the ideals of the Gods of the different peoples and 
nations of the ancient world. She brings forth at last that one whose 
name, whose shadow came down into the world and overshadowed the 
souls, the minds, the hearts of all men, and removed the mystery from 
every philosophy and philosophic system. 

In this permanent idea and the tendencies of the different peoples 
in such a time and religion, I may say two voices are heard. One, 
though it is from Palestine, re-echoed into Egypt, and especially to 
Alexandria and through parts of Greece and Rome. Another voice 
from Egypt re-echoed through Palestine, and through it over all the 
other countries and peoples of the east. And the voices from Pales¬ 
tine, having Jerusalem as their focus and center, re-echoed the voice 
back again to the Grecians and the Romans. And there it was that 
His doctrine fell amidst the Greek nations, the Grecian element of 
character, Greek letters and the sound reasoning of different systems 
of Greek philosophy. 

Surely in the regeneration of the different peoples there had been 
a divine revelation in the formation of all human kind into one spirit¬ 
ual family through the goodness of God, in one family equal, without 
any distinctions between the mean and the great, without distinction 
of climate or race, without distinction of national destiny or inspiration, 
of name or nobility, of family ties. And all the beauties which ever 
clustered around the ladder of Jacob, or were given to it by the men 
of Judea, was given by the prophets to the Virgin Mary in the cave of 
Bethlehem. But Greece gave Christianity the letters, gave the art, 
gave, as I may say, the enlightenment with which the Gospel of Chris-, 
tianity was invested, and presented itself then,and now presents itself 
before all nations. 

After referring to his scholarly historical disquisition the arch¬ 
bishop continued: 

It suffices me to say that no one of you, I believe, in the presence 
of these historical documents will deny that the original Christian, 
the first Christian church was the church of the east, and that is the 
Greek church. Surely the first Christian churches in Asia Minor, 
Egypt and Assyria were instituted by the apostles of Christ and for 
the most part in Greek communities. All those are the foundation 
stones on which the present Greek church is based. 

The apostles themselves preached and wrote in the Greek letters and 
all the teachers and writers of the Gospel in the east, the contempora¬ 
ries and the successors of the apostles were teaching, preaching and 
writing in the Greek language. Especially the two great schools, that 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


453 


of Alexandria and that of Antioch, undertook the development of 
Christianity and form and systematize a Christian church. The great 
teachers and writers of these two schools, whose names are very well 
known, labored courageously to defend and determine forever the 
Christian doctrine and to constitute under divine rules and forms a 
Christian church. 

At last, the Greek Christian, therefore, may be called historically 
and justly the treasurer of the first Christian doctrine, fundamental 
evangelical truths. It may be called the ark which bears the spiritual 
manna and feeds all those who look to it in order to obtain from it the 
richness of the ideas and the unmistakable reasoning of every Chris- 
tian doctrine, of every evangelical truth, of every ecclesiastical senti¬ 
ment. 

After this, my oration about the Greek church, I have nothing 
more to add than to extend my open arms and embrace all those who 
attend this congress of the ministers of the world. I embrace, as my 
brothers in Jesus Christ, as my brothers in the divinely inspired Gospel, 
as my friends in eminent ideas and sentiments, all men; for we have a 
common Creator, and consequently a common Father and God. And 
I pray you lift with me for a moment the mind toward the divine 
essence, and say with me, with all your minds and hearts, a prayer to 
Almighty God. 

Most High, omnipotent King, look down upon human kind; en¬ 
lighten us that we may know Thy will, Thy ways, Thy holy truths. Bless 
and magnify the reunited peoples of the world and the great people 
of the United States of America, whose greatness and kindness has 
invited us from the remotest parts of the earth in this their Columbian 
year to see with them an evidence of their progress in the wonderful 
achievements of the human' mind and the human soul. 


5pirit and jV^ission of the Apostolic Qhurch 

of Armenia. 

By OHANNES CHATSCHUMGAN, of Armenia. 



CCORDING to the general testimony of histo¬ 
rians, Christianity was introduced into Arme¬ 
nia in the first century. In the year 34 A. D. 
the Apostle Thaddeus went to this country, 
and in the year 60 A. D. Bartholomew fol¬ 
lowed. They preached the Gospel and were 
martyred. These apostles were, therefore, 
the founders of the Armenian church. Besides 
them two others, Simeon and Judah, preached 
in Armenia. But Christianity did not become 
the established religion until the year 302 A. 
D., although during this interval thousands of Arme¬ 
nians became martyrs for Christianity. In that year 
Saint Gregory Illuminator enlightened the entire 
Armenian nation, and Christianity became the religion of 
the king as well as of the people. In the Armenian lan¬ 
guage to “ enlighten ” means to “ Christianize.” Whether, 
therefore, we date the establishment of Christianity from the first cent¬ 
ury or at the beginning of the fourth, the Armenian church remains 
the oldest Christian church in the, world. 

Because of its past it has a peculiar place among other churches. 
While the church is only one element in the lives of other nations—an 
element sometimes strong, sometimes less strong—in Armenia it 
embraces the whole life of the nation. There are not two different 
ideals, one for Christianity, the other for nationality. These two 
ideals are united. The Armenians love their country because they 
love Christianity. Church and fatherland have been almost synony¬ 
mous in their tongues. 

The construction of the Armenian church is simple and apos¬ 
tolic. It is independent and national. The head is called the Patri¬ 
arch Catholicos of all Armenians in whatever part of the world they 
may be. He is elected by the representatives of the nation and clergy 

454 



THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


455 


in Rtchmiadzin, at the foot of Mount Ararat. Any Armenian, even a 
layman, can become head of the church if the general assembly finds 
him worthy of this high office. Since Armenia has been divided 
among the three powers—Turkey, Russia and Persia—the election of 
the Catholicos is confirmed by the Russian emperor. The bishops 
are elected by the people of each province and are anointed by the 
Catholicos. The ordinary clergy are elected by each parish. The 
parish is free in its election, and neither bishop nor Catholicos can 
assign a priest to a parish against its wish. Each church being free in 
its home work, they are all bound with one another and so form a 
unity. 

The people share largely in the work of the church. All assem¬ 
blies which have to decide general questions, even dogmatic matters, 
are gathered from both people and clergy. The clergy exists for the 
people and not the people for the clergy. 

The Armenian clergy have always been pioneers in the educa¬ 
tional advancement of the nation. They have been the bringers in of 
European civilization to their people. From the fifth century to this 
very day young men intended for the priesthood are sent to the Occident 
to study in order that Christianity and civilization may go hand in 
hand. The country owes everything to its clergy. They have been 
first in danger and first in civilization. 

The spirit of the Armenian church is tolerant. A characteristic 
feature of Armenians, even while they were heathen, was that they 
were cosmopolitan in religious matters. Armenia, in early ages, was 
an America for the oppressed of other lands. From Assyria, as we 
read in the Bible, in the Book of Kings, Adramelech and Anamelech 
escaped to Armenia. From China, Hindustan and Palestine they went 
thither, carrying their religious thoughts and their idols, which they 
worshiped side by side with the Armenian gods. 

Christianity has entirely changed the political and moral life of 
Armenia, but the tolerant spirit has ever remained. For more than 
fifteen hundred years she has been persecuted for her faith and for 
conscience’ sake, and yet she has never been a religious persecutor. 
She calls no church heterodox. The last Catholicos, Makar the First, 
said once to me: “My son, do not call any church heterodox. All 
churches are equal, and everybody is saved by his own faith.” Every 
day in our churches prayers are offered for all those who call on the 
name of The Most High in sincerity. 

The Armenian church does not like religious disputes. She has 
defended the ideals of Christianity more with the red blood of her 
children than with big volumes of controversies. She has always 
insisted on the brotherhood of all Christians. Nerces, archbishop of 
Zanbron, Cilicia, who was called the second Apostle Paul, in the twelfth 
century defended and practiced the very ideals and equality of all 
churches and the brotherhood of all men which the most liberal clergy¬ 
men of this century believe in. 

The Armenian church has a great literature, especially in sacred 


456 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


lyrics, which has had a vast influence over the people. But the purify¬ 
ing influence of our church appears chiefly in the family. In no land 
is the family life purer. For an Armenian the family is sacred. Eth¬ 
nologists ask with reason: “How can we explain the continued exist¬ 
ence of the Armenian nation through the fire and sword of four 
thousand years?” The solution of this riddle is in the pure family 
life. This is the anchor by which the stormbeaten has been held. It 
is a singular fact that Armenia never had, even in her heathen time, 
either polygamy or slavery, although always surrounded by nations 
who followed these evil practices. 

Women in Armenia have always had a distinguished place in the 
church. The first Christian martyr among women in the whole world 
was an Armenian girl, Sandooct, the beautiful daughter of the King 
Sanstreek. In the fifth century, as says the historian, Equishe, the 
songs of the Armenian women were the psalms and their daily read¬ 
ings the Gospel. 

Geographically, Armenia is the bridge between Asia and Europe. 
All the nations of Asia have traveled over this bridge. One cannot 
show a single year in the long past through which she has enjoyed 
peace. Every one of her stones has been baptized many times with 
the sacred blood of martyrs. Her rivers have flowed, not with water, 
but with blood and tears of the Armenian nation. Surrounded by 
non-Christian and anti-Chiristian peoples, she has kept her Christianity 
and her independent national church. Through the darkness of the 
ages she has been a bright torch in the Orient of Christianity and 
civilization. 

All her neighbors have passed away—the Assyrians, the Babylon, 
ians, the Parthians, and the Persian fire worshipers. Armenia, herself 
has lost everything; crown and scepter are gone; peace and happiness 
have departed; to her remains only the cross, the sign of martyrdom. 
Yet the Armenian church still lives. Why? To fulfill the work she 
was called to do; to spread civilization among the peoples of this part 
of Asia, and she has still vitality enough to fulfill this mission. For 
this struggling and aspiring church we crave your sympathy. To help 
the Armenian church is to help humanity. 


XVIII. 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 





The Kjoman Catholic Church. 



I ! * 

I \ : i 


HE church which is Roman in its center and 
catholic in its circumference. The word cath¬ 
olic, meaning universal, was used in early 
Christian and mediaeval times for the great 
ecclesiastical organization with which the vast 
mass of Christians were connected. When 
the reformation took place, the Protestants 
refused to admit that the church which they 
had left was entitled to call itself Catholic, 
and prefixed the adjective Roman, while its 
adherents claimed the designation Catholic 
without any limiting adjective. All admit it 
to be catholic in the sense of being the largest 
church in Christendom, and all other episcopal 
churches acknowledge the validity of the 
orders of its clergy. The number of Roman 
Catholics in the world has been estimated at 152,000,000, which is far 
too low; at 213.518,063, at 214,370,000, and at 218,000,000. Taking the 
second of these estimates, the distribution of Roman Catholics over 
the world is believed to be: In Europe, 150,684,050; Asia, 8,311,800; 
Africa, 2,656,205; America, 51,422,566; Australia and the adjacent 
islands, 443,442, making a total of 213,518,063. 

The radical difference between Protestants and Roman Catholics 
lies in their conception of the church. The latter hold that the Roman 
Church is the church of the New Testament, with authority to define 
articles of faith, and that all bodies not in communion with her are 
either heretical or schismatic. Protestants’ views differ widely—from 
that of the High Churchman who, while denying the universal jurisdic¬ 
tion of the Pope, admits that as Bishop of Rome he is piirmis inter pares, 
to that which considers him the Man of Sin and the Anti-christ of 
Scripture. From this fundamental difference all others necessarily 
follow. Roman Catholics hold the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the 
Athanasian Creeds, Transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass; 
Seven Sacraments, the necessity of confession, the existence of a Pur¬ 
gatory, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and the Infal¬ 
libility of the Pope .—American E?Kyclopcedic Dictionary. 


6 


459 



460 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The creed adopted by the Council of Trent is the belief of the 
Catholic Church, with the Nicene creed: 

“ I most steadfastly admit and embrace apostolical and ecclesi¬ 
astical traditions, and all other observances and constitutions of the 
same church. 

“ I also admit the holy Scriptures, according to that sense which 
our holy mother the church has held and does hold, to which it 
belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; 
neither will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according 
to the unanimous consent of the fathers. 

“ I also profess that there are truly and properly seven sacraments 
of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for 
the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one—to wit: bap¬ 
tism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy 
orders, and matrimony; and that they confer grace; and that of these, 
baptism, confirmation, and orders cannot be reiterated without sacri¬ 
lege. I also receive and admit the received and approved ceremonies 
of the Catholic Church, used in the solemn administration of the afore¬ 
said sacraments. 

“ I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which 
have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent, concern¬ 
ing original sin and justification. 

“ 1 profess, likewise, that in the mass there is offered to God a 
true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and 
that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly, really, 
and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and 
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a conversion 
of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole 
substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion the Catholic 
Church calls transubstantiation. I also confess that under each kind 
Christ is whole and entire, and a true sacrament js received. 

“ I firmly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein 
detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. 

“ Likewise, that the saints reigning with Christ are to be honored 
and invocated, and that they offer up prayers to God for us; and that 
their relics ought to be venerated. 

“ I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, of the Mother 
of God, and also of the saints, ought to be had and retained, and that 
due honor and veneration are to be given them. 

“ I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by Christ to 
the church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian 
people. 

“ I acknowledge the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church 
for the mother and mistress of all churches; and I promise and swear 
true obedience to the Roman pontiff, successor of St. Peter, prince of 
apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ, all other things also delivered, 
defined and declared by the sacred canons and ecumenical councils, 
and particularly by the holy Synod of Trent, I undoubtedly receive 
and profess, and at the same time all things contrary, and any heresies 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


461 


soever condemned by the church, and rejected and anathematized, 
I, in like manner, condemn, reject, and anathematize. This true Cath¬ 
olic faith, outside of which no one can be saved, I now truly 

profess and truly hold, and I, N-, promise to hold and profess the 

same whole and entire, with God’s assistance to the end of my life. 
Amen. 

The sacraments are baptism, confirmation, penance, the mass, 
extreme unction, holy orders, matrimony. 

Papal Infallibility.—A papal claim thus asserted on July 18, 1870, 
in the Ecumenical Council, held in the Vatican under the presidency 
of Pope Pius IX.: 

“We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed; that 
the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra , that is, when in dis¬ 
charge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of 
his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine regarding faith 
or morals to be held by the Universal Church, by the divine assistance 
promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with 
which the divine Redeemer willed that His church should be endowed 
for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that therefore such 
definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable i. e. t in the words 
used by Pope Nicholas I., Note 13, and in the Synod of Quedlinburg, 
A. D. 1085, ‘ it is allowed to none to revise its judgment, and to sit in 
judgment upon what it has judged’ (. Labbc , vol. xii., p. 679), of them¬ 
selves and not from the consent of the church. 

“ But if any one—which may God avert—presume to contradict 
this our definition, let him be anathema.” ( Vaughan: The Vatican 
Council , pt. ii., p. 119.) Till the decision of the Vatican Council in 
favor of the Pope’s infallibility this opinion, though for centuries 
it had had numerous advocates, especially in Italy, had never been 
authoritatively decided. When it ceased to be an open question, some 
German bishops, of whom Professor Dollinger, of Munich, was the 
most noted, seceded from the Roman Church, and in September, 1871, 
took the name of Old Catholics. 

If a Roman Catholic and a Protestant desire to marry, they must, 
according to Catholic practice, promise that the children shall be 
brought up in the Roman communion; the bishop may then grant a 
dispensation, and the marriage, without the nuptial benediction, must 
take place in a Roman Catholic Church, without any repetition of the 
ceremony in a Protestant Church. 

In 1894 the Catholic Church in the United States comprised 14 
provinces, 1 cardinal, 16 archbishops, 71 bishops, 9,717 priests (7,231 
secular and 2,486 regular clergymen), 8,729 churches, 5,704 chapels and 
stations, and 8,902,033 reported and 12,000,000 claimed adherents. 

The first Christians in America were Roman Catholics. In 1521 
a settlement was begun on the Chesapeake, others in New Mexico in 
1539, and in Florida in 1565. 

There are several religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church.; 
The principal one is the Jesuit, or the Society of Jesus, lhe great 
religious revolution of the sixteenth century ran through the three 



462 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


stages which tend to occur in revolutions in general. First there was 
a moderate departure from the previously existing state of things; 
then the Anabaptists burst loose from control, and went into extrava¬ 
gances and excesses. Reaction then became inevitable, and if a suit¬ 
able leader should arise was bound to become powerful. That leader 
was found in Don Inigo Lopez de Recalde, generally known from the 
castle of Loyola where he was born, in 1491, as Ignatius Loyola. He 
became an officer of great bravery in the army, though he was not- 
above the ordinary military vices. Dreadfully wounded in 1521, while 
defending Pampeluna against the French, and long confined in conse¬ 
quence to a sick bed, he saw the vanity of the world, and, renouncing 
it, resolved in future on a devotedly religious life. When, on his 
recovery, he was at the University of Paris, he made converts of two 
fellow students who lodged with him, one a youth of aristocratic 
descent, Francis Xavier, afterward the Apostle of the Indies. In 1534 
he and they, with four others, seven in all, formed a kind of religious 
society, the members of which preached through the country. On 
August 15 of that year they took vows of chastity, absolute poverty, 
devotion to the care of Christians, and to the conversion of infidels. 
This was the germ of the Jesuit order. Loyola, like most other 
Spaniards of aristocratic descent, was devotedly attached to the old 
order of things, rudely shaken by the Reformation. A soldier, he 
bethought him of an army in which inferiors should give implicit obe¬ 
dience to their superiors. A general should command, and should 
have none above him but the Pope, to whom he should give loyal sup¬ 
port. Paul III. issued a bull in 1540 sanctioning the establishment of 
the order with certain restrictions, swept away three years later. In 
1542 Loyola was chosen general of the order, and afterward resided 
generally at Rome. His followers went everywhere giving special 
attention to the education of youth, the instruction of adults by 
preaching, the defense of Catholicism against heretics and unbelievers, 
and the conversion of the heathen and Mohammedans. His order 
spread with great rapidity, and at the death of Loyola, on July 31, 
1556, consisted of above 1,000 persons, with 100 houses divided into 
twelve provinces. The Jesuits rendered great service to the papacy, 
but ultimately became unpopular with the civil government in most 
Roman Catholic countries. The people thought them crafty. In Sep¬ 
tember, 1759, an order was given for the expulsion of the Jesuits from 
Portugal and Brazil. In 1764 the order was suppressed in France, and 
its property confiscated. On March 31, 1767, similar destruction over¬ 
took it in Spain, and soon after in Spanish America, and next, after 
1768, in the Two Sicilies and Parma, till at length on July 21, 1773, the 
Pope issued a bull suppressing the order altogether. Austria and the 
other Roman Catholic states obeyed the decree. In August, 1814, 
Pope Pius VII. re-established it. In June, 1817, the Jesuits were expelled 
from Russia, and the British Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, 10 
Geo. IV. c. 7, passed in 1829, left them under some disabilities, which 
have since been removed. Upon being expelled from France many of 
them sought an asylum in England and this country, successfully claim- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


463 


ing that religious liberty which is considered the right of all religious 
o rga n i zat i o n s .—A meric an Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

At the World’s Congress of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, 
very able papers were read by distinguished members of the Roman 
Catholic communion on various topics. 






Janies , Cardinal Gibbons. 



By permission cf Buckrach Bro ., Baltimore. 





The ]SJeeds of H uman 'ty Supplied by the 

Catholic Religion. 

Paper by His Eminence CARDINAL GIBBONS, Archbishop of Baltimore. 


E live and move and have our being in 
the midst of a civilization which is the 
legitimate offspring of the Catholic 
religion. The blessings resulting 
from our Christian civilization are 
poured out so regularly and so abun¬ 
dantly on the intellectual, moral and 
social world, like the sunlight and the 
air of heaven and the fruits of the 
earth, that they have ceased to excite 
any surprise except to those who visit 
lands where the religion of Christ is 
little known. In order to realize ad¬ 
equately our favored situation we 
should transport ourselves in spirit to 
ante-Christian times and contrast the 
condition of the pagan world with 
our own. 

Before the advent of Christ the whole world, 
with the exception of the secluded Roman prov¬ 
ince of Palestine, was buried in idolatry. Every striking object in 
nature had its tutelary divinities. Men worshiped the sun and moon 
and stars of heaven.. They worshiped their very passions. They 
worshiped everything except God, to whom alone divine homage is 
due. In the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: “They changed 
the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the corrupt¬ 
ible man, and of birds and beasts and creeping things. They wor¬ 
shiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed 
forever. 9 ' 

But at last the great light for which the prophets of Israel had 
sighed and prayed, and toward which even the pagan sages had 
stretched forth their hands with eager longing, arose and shone unto 
30 465 





466 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


them “that sat in darkness and the shadow of death.” The truth con¬ 
cerning our Creator, which had hitherto been hidden in Judea that 
there it might be sheltered from the world-wide idolatry, was now 
proclaimed, and in far greater clearness and fullness, unto the whole 
world. Jesus Christ taught all mankind to know the one true God— 
a God existing from eternity to eternity, a God who created all things 
by His power, who governs all things by His wisdom, and whose 
superintending Providence watches over the affairs of nations as well 
as of men, “without whom not even a bird falls to the ground.” He 
proclaimed a God infinitely holy, just and merciful. This idea of the 
Deity so consonant to our rational conceptions was in striking con¬ 
trast with the low and sensual notions which the pagan world had 
formed of its divinities. 

The religion of Christ imparts to us not only a sublime concep¬ 
tion of God, but also a rational idea of man and of his relations to his 
Creator. Before the coming of Christ man was a riddle and a mys' 
tery to himself. He knew not whence he came nor whither he was 
going. He was groping in the dark. All he knew for certain war* 
that he was passing through a brief phase of existence. The past and 
the future were enveloped in a mist which the light of philosophy was 
unable to penetrate. Our Redeemer has dispelled the cloud and en¬ 
lightened us regarding our origin and destiny and the means of attain¬ 
ing it. He has rescued man from the frightful labyrinth of error in 
which paganism had involved him. 

The Gospel of Christ, as propounded by the Catholic church, has 
brought not only light to the intellect, but comfort also to the heart. 
It has given us “that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding” 
—the peace which springs from the conscious possession of truth. 
It has taught us how to enjoy that triple peace which constitutes true 
happiness as far as it is attainable in this life—peace with God by the 
observance of His commandments; peace with our neighbor by the 
exercise of charity and justice toward him, and peace with ourselves 
by repressing our inordinate appetites and keeping our passions sub¬ 
ject to the law of reason and our reason illumined and controlled by 
the law of God. 

All other religious systems prior to the advent of Christ were 
national like Judaism, or state religions like Paganism. The Catholic 
religion alone is world-wide and cosmopolitan, embracing all races and 
nations and peoples and tongues. 

Christ alone of all religious founders had the courage to say to His 
disciples: “Go, teach all nations.” “Preach the Gospel to every 
creature.” “You shall be witness to Mein Judea and Samaria and 
even to the uttermost bounds of the earth.” Be not restrained in your 
mission by national or state lines. Let my Gospel be as free and uni¬ 
versal as the air of heaven. “ The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness 
thereof.” All mankind are the children of My Father,and my breth¬ 
ren. I have died for all, and embrace all in my charity. Let the whole 
human race be your audience and the world be the theater of your 
labors. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


467 


It is this recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brother^ 
hood of Christ that has inspired the Catholic church in her mission o • 
love and benevolence. This is the secret of her all-pervading charity. 
This idea has been her impelling motive in her work of the social 
regeneration of mankind I behold, she says, in every human creature 
a child of God and a brother and sister of Christ, and therefore I will 
protect helpless infancy and decrepit old age. I will feed the orphan 
and nurse the sick. I will strike the shackles from the feet of the 
slave and will rescue degraded women from the moral bondage and 
degradation to which her own frailty and the passions of the stronger 
sex had consigned her 

Montesquieu has well said that the religion of Christ, which was 
instituted to lead men to eternal life, has contributed more than any 
other institution to promote the temporal and social happiness of man¬ 
kind. The object of this parliament of religions is to present to 
thoughtful, earnest and inquiring minds the respective claims of the 
various religions, with the view that they would “ prove all things, and 
hold that which is good,” by embracing that religion which above all 
others commends itself to their judgment and conscience. I am not 
engaged in this search for the truth, for, by the grace of God, I am 
conscious that I have found it, and instead of hiding this treasure in 
my own breast I long to share it with others, especially as I am none 
the poorer in making others the richer. 

But, for my part, were I occupied in this investigation, much as I 
would be drawn toward the Catholic church by her admirable unity of 
faith which binds together 250,000,000 of souls; much as I would be 
attracted toward her by her sublime moral code, by her world-wide 
Catholicity and by that unbroken chain of apostolic succession which 
connects her indissolubly with apostolic times, I would be drawn still 
more forcibly toward her by that wonderful system of organized 
benevolence which she has established for the alleviation and comfort 
of suffering humanity. 

Let us briefly review what the Catholic church has done for the 
elevation and betterment of society: 

First. The Catholic church has purified society in its very fountain, 
which is the marriage bond. She has invariably proclaimed the unity 
and sanctity and indissolubility of the marriage tie by saying with her 
founder that “What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” 
Wives and mothers, never forget that the inviolability of the marriage 
contract is the palladium of your womanly dignity and of your Chris¬ 
tian liberty. And if you are no longer the slaves of man and the toy 
of his caprice, like the wives of Asiatic countries, but the peers and 
partners of your husbands; if you are no longer tenants at will like the 
wives of pagan Greece and Rome, but the mistresses of your house¬ 
hold; if you are no longer confronted by usurping rivals like Moham¬ 
medan and Mormon wives, but the queens of the domestic kingdom, 
you are indebted for this priceless boon to the ancient church, and 
particularly to the Roman pontiffs who inflexibly upheld the sacred. 



r~ 


Most Rev John Ireland. Archbishop of St. Paul, Minn 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 469 

ness of the nuptial bond against the arbitrary power of kings, the lust 
of nobles and the lax and pernicious legislation of civil governments. 

Second. The Catholic religion has proclaimed the sanctity of hu¬ 
man life as soon as the body is animated by the vital spark. Infanticide 
was a dark stain on pagan civilization. It was universal in Greece, 
with the possible exception of Thebes. It was sanctioned and even 
sometimes enjoined by such eminent Greeks as Plato and Aristotle, 
Solon and Lycurgus. The destruction of infants was also very com¬ 
mon among the Romans. Nor was there any legal check to this in¬ 
human crime, except at rare intervals. The father had the power of 
life and death over his child. And as an evidence that human nature 
does not improve with time and is everywhere the same, unless per¬ 
meated with the leaven of Christianity, the wanton sacrifice of infant 
life is probably as general today in China and other heathen countries 
as it was in ancient Greece and Rome. The Catholic church has 
sternly set her face against this exposure and murder of innocent 
babes. She has denounced it as a crime more revolting than that of 
Herod, because committed against one’s own flesh and blood. She 
has condemned with equal energy the atrocious doctrine of Malchus, 
who suggested unnatural methods for diminishing the population of 
the human family. Were I not restrained by the fear of offending 
modesty and of imparting knowledge where “ignorance is bliss,” I 
would dwell more at length on the social plague of ante-natal infanti¬ 
cide, which is insidiously and systematically spreading among us in 
defiance of civil penalties and of the divine law which says, “Thou 
shalt not kill.” 

Third There is no place of human misery for which the church 
does not provide some remedy or alleviation. She has established 
infant asylums for the shelter of helpless babes who have been cruelly 
abandoned by their own parents or bereft of them in the mysterious 
dispensations of Providence before they could know or feel a mother’s 
love. These little waifs, like the infant Moses drifting in the turbid 
Nile, are rescued from an untimely death, and are tenderly raised by 
the daughters of the Great King, those consecrated virgins who 
become nursing mothers to them. And I have known more than one 
such motherless babe who, like Israel’s law-giver, in after years became 
a leader among his people. 

Fourth. As the church provides homes for those yet on the thresh¬ 
old of life, so. too, does she secure retreats for those on the threshold 
of death. She has asylums in which the aged, men and women, find 
at one and the same time a refuge in their old age from the storms of 
life, and a novitiate to prepare them for eternity. Thus, from the 
cradle to the grave, she is a nursing mother. She rocks her children 
in the cradle of infancy, and she soothes them to rest on the couch of 
death. 

Louis XIV erected in Paris the famous Hotel des Invalides for the 
veteran soldiers of France who had fought in the service of their 
country. And so has the Catholic religion provided for those who 


470 


THE RELIGIONS OE 1IIE WORLD 


have been disabled in the battle of life a home, in which they are ten- 
derly nursed in their declining years by devoted sisters. 

The Little Sisters of the Poor, whose congregation was founded in 
1840, have now charge of 250 establishments in different parts of the 
globe, the aged inmates of those houses numbering 30,000, upward of 
70,000 having died under their care up to 1889. To the asylums are 
welcomed not only the members of the Catholic religion, but those 
also of every form of Christian faith, and even those without any faith 
at all. The sisters make no distinction of persons or nationality or 
color or creed, for true Christianity embraces all. The only question 
proposed by the sisters to the applicant for shelter is this: Are you 
oppressed by age and penury? If so, come to us and we will provide 
for you. 

Fifth. She has orphan asylums where children of both sexes are 
reared and taught to become useful and worthy members of society. 

Sixth. Hospitals were unknown to the pagan world before the 
coming of Christ. The copious vocabularies of Greece and Rome had 
no word even to express that term. 

The Catholic church has hospitals for the treatment and cure of 
every form of disease. She sends her daughters of charity and of 
mercy to the battlefield and to the plague-stricken city. During the 
Crimean war I remember to have read of a sister who was struck dead 
by a ball while she was in the act of stooping down and bandaging the 
wound of a fallen soldier. Much praise was then deservedly bestowed 
on Florence Nightingale for her devotion to the sick and wounded 
soldiers. Her name resounded in both hemispheres. But in every 
sister you have a Florence Nightingale, with this difference—that, like 
ministering angels, they move without noise along the path of duty; 
and, like the angel Raphael, who concealed his name from Tobias, the 
sister hides her name from the world. 

Several years ago I accompanied to New Orleans eight Sisters of 
Charity, who were sent from Baltimore to re-enforce the ranks of their 
heroic companions or to supply the places of their devoted associates 
who had fallen at the post of duty in the fever-stricken cities of the 
south. Their departure for the scene of their labors was neither an¬ 
nounced by the press nor heralded by public applause. They rushed 
calmly into the jaws of death, not bent on deeds of destruction like the 
famous 600, but on deeds of mercy. They had no Tennyson to sound 
their praises. Their only ambition was—and how lofty is that ambi¬ 
tion—that the recording angel might be their biographer; that their 
names might be inscribed in the Book of Life, and that they might 
receive their recompense from Him who has said: “I was sick and ye 
visited Me, for as often as ye did it to one of the least of My brethren 
ye did it to Me.” Within a few months after their arrival six of the 
eight sisters died, victims of the epidemic. 

These are a few of the many instances of heroic charity that have 
fallen under my own observation. Here are examples of sublime 
heroism not culled from the musty pages of ancient martyrologies or 


THE R ELI GO IMS OF THE WORLD. 


471 


books of chivalry, but happening in our own day and under our own 
eyes. Here is a heroism not aroused by the emulation of brave comrades 
on the battlefield or by the clash of arms or the strains of martial 
hymns, or by the love for earthly fame, but inspired only by a sense of 
Christian duty and by the love of God and her fellow-beings. 

Seventh. Hie Catholic religion labors not only to assuage the phys¬ 
ical distempers of humanity, but also to reclaim the victims of moral 
disease. The redemption of fallen women from a life of infamy was 
never included in the scope of heathen philanthropy; and man’s unre¬ 
generate nature is the same now as before the birth of Christ. 

He worships woman as long as she has charms to fascinate, but 
she is spurned and trampled upon as soon as she has ceased to please. 
Jt was reserved for Him who knew no sin to throw the mantle of pro¬ 
tection over sinning woman. There is no page in the Gospel more 
touching than that which records our Saviour’s merciful judgment on 
the adulterous woman. The Scribes and Pharisees, who had perhaps 
participated in her guilt, asked our Lord to pronounce sentence of 
death upon her in accordance with the Mosaic law. “Hath no one 
condemned thee?” asked our Saviour. “No one, Lord,” she answered. 
“Then,” said He, “neither will I condemn thee. Go; sin no more.” 

Inspired by this divine example, the Catholic church shelters 
erring females in homes not inappropriately called Magdalena asy¬ 
lums and houses of the Good Shepherd. Not to speak of other 
institutions established for the moral reformation of women, the con¬ 
gregation of the Good Shepherd at Angers, founded in 1836, has 
charge today of 150 houses, in which upward of 4,000 sisters devote 
themselves to the care of over 20,000 females who had yielded to 
temptation or were rescued from impending danger 

Eighth. The Christian religion has been the unvarying friend and 
advocate of the bondman. Before the dawn of Christianity, slavery 
was universal in civilized as well as in barbarous nations The 
apostles were everywhere confronted by the children of oppression. 
Their first task was to mitigate the horrors and alleviate the miseries 
of human bondage. They cheered the slave by holding up to him the 
example of Christ, who voluntarily became a slave that we might 
enjoy the glorious liberty of children of God. The bondman had an 
equal participation with his master in the sacraments of the church 
and in the priceless consolation which religion affords. 

Slave-owners were admonished to be kind and humane to their 
slavey by being reminded with apostolic freedom that they and their 
servants had the same Master in heaven, who had no respect of per¬ 
sons. The ministers of the Catholic religion down the ages sought to 
lighten the burden and improve the condition of the slave as far as 
social prejudices would permit, till at length the chains fell from their 
feet. 

Human slavery has, at last, thank God, melted away before the 
noonday sun of the Gospel. No Christian country contains today a 
solitary slave. To paraphrase the words of a distinguished Irish jurist, 


472 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


as soon as the bondman puts his foot in a Christian land he stands 
redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled on the sacred soil of Chris¬ 
tendom. 

Ninth. The Savior of mankind never conferred a greater temporal 
boon on mankind than by ennobling and sanctifying manual labor and 
by rescuing it from the stigma of degradation which had been branded 
upon it. Before Christ appeared among men, manual and even 
mechanical work was regarded as servile and degrading to the free¬ 
men of pagan Rome and was consequently relegated to slaves. Christ 
is ushered into the world, not amid the pomp and splendor of imperial 
majesty, but amid the environments of an humble child of toil. He is 
the reputed son of an artisan and His early manhood is spent in a 
mechanic’s shop. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?’’ The 
primeval curse attached to labor is obliterated by the toilsome life of 
Jesus Christ. Ever since He pursued His trade as a carpenter He has 
lightened the mechanic’s tools and has shed a halo around the workshop. 

If the profession of a general, a jurist and a statesman is adorned 
by the example of a Washington, a Taney and a Burke, how much 
more is the calling of a workman ennobled by the example of Christ. 
What De Tocqueville said sixty years ago of the United States is true 
today—that with us every honest labor is laudable, thanks to the 
example and teaching of Jesus Christ. 

To sum up: The Catholic church has taught man the knowledge 
of God and of himself; she has brought comfort to his heart by in¬ 
structing him to bear the ills of life with Christian philosophy; she has 
sanctified the marriage bond; she has proclaimed the sanctity and in¬ 
violability of human life from the moment that the body is animated 
by the spark of life till it is extinguished; she has founded asylums for 
the training of children of both sexes and for the support of the aged 
poor; she has established hospitals for the sick and homes for the re¬ 
demption of fallen women; she has exerted her influence toward the 
mitigation and abolition of human slavery; she has been the unwaver¬ 
ing friend of the sons of toil. These are some of the blessings which 
the Catholic church has conferred on society. 

I will not deny, on the contrary I am happy to avow, that the 
various Christian bodies outside the Catholic church have been and 
are today zealous promoters of most of these works of Christian 
benevolence which I have enumerated Not to speak of the innumer¬ 
able humanitarian houses established by our non-Catholic brethren 
throughout the land, I bear cheerful testimony to the philanthropic 
institutions founded by Wilson and Shepherd, by Johns Hopkins, 
Enoch Pratt and George Peabody in the city of Baltimore. But will 
not our separated brethren have the candor to acknowledge that we 
had first possession of the field; that these beneficent movements have 
been inaugurated by us, and that the other Christian communities in 
their noble efforts for the moral and social regeneration of mankind 
have in no small measure been stimulated by the example and emula¬ 
tion of the ancient church? 


The Relations of the f^oman Catholic 
Church to the Poor and Restitute. 

By CHARLES F. DONNELLY. 


[E Christian church was from the beginning 
always solicitious of the poor, even in her early 
s truggles and in the persecution she was then 
undergoing. This solicitude is shown in the 
first papal prescript transmitted by Saint 
Clement, the fourth of the popes, to the 
Church of Corinth, wherein he said: “Let the 
rich give liberally to the poor, and let the poor 
man give praise and thanks to God for having 
inspired the rich man with the good will to 
relieve him.” A little later Saint Cyprian, 
bishop and martyr, wrote his book on “Good 
Works and Alms Deeds,” an admirable treat¬ 
ise on Christian charity, for which he was 
distinguished. 

Under the auspices of the church the primitive Christians estab¬ 
lished means for the relief of the poor, the sick and the travelers in 
distress or needing shelter, hospitals for lepers, societies for the 
redemption of captive slaves, congregations of females for the relief of 
indigent women, associations of religious women for redeeming those 
of their sex who were leading dissolute lives, and hospitals for the 
sick, the orphaned, the aged and afflicted of all kinds, like the Hotel- 
Dieu, founded in Paris in the seventeenth century and still perpetu¬ 
ated. 

The story of the origin of resorting to the place for the cure of the 
insane is that an Irish princess, Saint Dymphna, was slain there May 
15, A. D. 600, by the hand of her own father, a pagan, who having be¬ 
come enraged at her conversion to Christianity, caused her to flee, and 
pursuing her there, beheaded her. An insane person witnessing 
the act was cured, and thus a belief became current that miraculous 
cures of the insane were effected by visiting the spot where she 
was beheaded. A shrine was erected there and in A. D. 1340 a 
memorial church was added. AnlSf 






Francis Cardinal Satolli, Papal Ablegate, 











THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


475 


It is fair to assume that the charitable religious of the neighbor¬ 
hood saw early that the ancient methods of imprisoning the in¬ 
sane were irrational, and so gradually surrounded them with condi¬ 
tions akin to their home lives, and gently led them to improve, if not 
to wholly recover their reason, under a method of treatment centuries 
in advance of the most intelligent methods pursued with the insane 
until our time, when we find no better system can be followed. 

The church was, it may be said, almost unreservedly, the only 
almoner to the poor in primitive times, up to the period when modern 
history begins; for charity was not a pagan virtue, and man had not 
been taught it until the Redeemer’s coming; so the religious houses, 
the monasteries, convents, asylums and hospitals were the great 
houses of refuge and charity the poor and needy had to resort to in 
their distress in later times. 

But there appeared in the seventeenth century a man surpassing 
all who preceded him in directing the attention of mankind to the 
wants and necessities of the poor and to the work of relieving them, 
the great and good St. Vincent de Paul, whose name and memory 
will ever be revered while the church of Christ endures. Born on April 
24, 1576, in the little village of Pouy, near Dax, south of Bordeaux, 
bordering on the Pyrenees; he was ordained priest in 1600, and 
later fell into the hands of the Turks and was sold as a slave at 
Tunis. 

In the great work of St. Vincent de Paul nothing commends itself 
more to this practical age than his plan of enlisting large bodies of 
laymen to cooperate with the clergy by establishing confraternities 
in each parish of men who devote themselves to seeking out, visiting 
and relieving the sick, the orphaned and the destitute. Such associa¬ 
tions achieve in a quiet and unostentatious way wonderful results by 
the modest contributions of their own members chiefly and by the 
zeal and effectiveness of the work they do. France leads in such 
organizations naturally enough, but the United States is emulating her 
successfully and will, in view of what has been accomplished here of 

late years, soon surpass that nation. 

The work of founding ecclesiastical charitable organizations did 
not cease with the labors of St. Vincent de Paul, nor has it ceased at 
the present day. It will be well to recall at this point a few of the 
many active rather than the contemplative orders and congregations 
that we may be reminded of the constant care exercised by the church 
over those in need, and here it should also be mentioned that while 
such deserving praise is given St. Vincent de Paul for laying the 
foundations for the most active religious communities ever established 
, under the auspices of the church, there were others who preceded him 
early in the same direction, but without achieving the same success, 
and conspicuously the Alexian, or Cellite Brothers, founded in 1325, 
at Aix-la-Chapelle, devoted to nursing the sick, especially in times of 
pestilence, the care of lunatics and persons suffering from epilepsy. 


476 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD . 


In 1572 the congregation of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of 
God was also founded for the care of the sick, infirm and poor. 

Twenty years after St. Vincent de Paul ended his life of charity 
there was founded at Rheims, in 1680, the congregation of the Brothers 
of the Christian Schools for the instruction of poor children. In 1804 
the Christian Brothers were founded in Ireland, mainly for the educa¬ 
tion of poor youths; at Ghent, the congregation of Brothers of Charity, 
in 1809, who devote their lives to aged, sick, insane and incurable men, 
and to orphans, abandoned children and the deaf, dumb and blind; at 
Paris, in 1824, the Sisterhood of Bon Secours was established for the 
care of the sick; in 1828, the Fathers of the Institute of Charity; in 
Ireland, in 1831, the Community of the Sisters of Mercy was founded 
for visiting the sick, educating the poor and protecting destitute chil¬ 
dren, and this religious body of women has now several hundred houses 
established in different parts of the world. For the reclamation and 
instruction of women and girls who had fallen from virtue the Nuns of 
the Good Shepherd were established in 1835. At St. Servan, in Brit¬ 
tany, some peasant women, chiefly young working women and domes¬ 
tic servants, instituted the Little Sisters of the Poor, in 1840, having for 
their object the care of the aged poor, irrespective of sex or creed, and 
they, too, have hundreds of houses now in nearly all the large cities of 
the world. 

But is the state the best almoner? In ancient times in Eng¬ 
land it was considered wiser to leave the whole duty of providing for 
the poor to those who would be required by humanity and religion to 
care for them, namely, the clergy, regular and secular; and the duty 
devolved on them, for centuries, as we have seen. Out of the tithes, 
the products of the labor of the monasteries, and the charitable contri¬ 
butions given by the laity to dispense, came the sole means of main¬ 
taining the poor in Catholic England, there being no compulsory 
methods by common law, or statute, looking to their support, and 
Blackstone himself credits the monasteries with the principal support 
of the poor in Catholic times. 

The affecting death of Father Damian among the lepers of Molo- 
kaoi was better than all polemical discourses to allay religious rancor 
where it may exist, and to awaken in the mind of all reflecting Chris¬ 
tians the importance not only of extending charity to the heathen in 
remote places, but to each other at home in our differences relating to 
creed and opinion. 

It is not improbable that within a few years great changes will be 
made by the Catholic church itself in the administration of many of its 
charities throughout the world. Some of its organizations are greatly 
impressed with the importance of studying new systems and methods of 
relief growing out of the social conditions of the nineteenth century. 
The slender equipment of the poor child in the past for the part he had 
to play in life; the continuous, or casual, administration of alms to the 
destitute, instead of leading them kindly and firmly forward from de- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


477 


pendence on others to self-help and self-reliance, are not adapted to 
the needs of the presenter to anticipate the requirements of the future. 

Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia: “Where Peter is, there is the church,” 
and Rome was made by the poor fishermen of Galilee the seat of the 
church nearly nineteen hundred years ago, and the seat of the church it 
remains, and shall to the end of time. In considering our subject it 
would seem the work would be incomplete if we did not inquire what 
the relations of the church to the poor and destitute have been, at its 
seat and center. Far back in the history of Christian Rome all the 
nations of Europe assisted in contributing to the opening of asylums 
for strangers there in distress. Prior to the advent of secular rule 
'there, under the existing government, the income for her charities 
was $800,000 per annum, with the population less than 175,000. 

It is impossible in a summary of this nature to give more than an 
outline of the ecclesiastical charities of Rome, as they existed up to the 
assumption of the government by the reigning family, in Italy; but in 
the recital of those charities it is well to mention the schools of gratu¬ 
itous instruction, which were founded by Clement XIII., in 1592; by 
the Peres Doctrinaires, in 1727, and by St. Angela de Merecia, in 1655, 
the latter mainly for poor females, and all instructing in the ordinary 
branches of a common school education. Then there were fifty-five 
regionary schools; a number of parochial schools, and besides 374 
general, or public free schools for the young, with 484 teachers and 
fourteen thousand pupils, in attendance. So it appears the church has 
not failed in her duty to the poor at her center. 

In the United States there are over seven hundred Catholic chari¬ 
table institutions, the inmates of which are maintained almost entirely 
by the contributions of their co-religionists, who, with their fellow 
citizens of other denominations, share in the burden of general taxa¬ 
tion, proportionately to their means, in maintaining the poor at the 
public charitable institutions besides. A truly anomalous condition, 
but arising from the strong adherence of Catholics to the idea that 
charity is best administered, where not attended to individually, by 
those in the religious life, who give to the poor of their means, not 
through public officers and bureaus, but through those who serve the 
poor in the old apostolic spirit, with love of God and their less fortu¬ 
nate neighbor and brother actuating them. In the scheme of the dis¬ 
pensation of public charity relief is extended on the narrow ground 
that there is some implied obligation on the part of the state to main¬ 
tain the citizen in his necessities in return for service rendered or ex¬ 
pected; but the church imposes the burden on the conscience of every 
man of helping his neighbor in distress, apart from any service done 
or expected, and teaches that all in suffering are entitled to aid, 
whether they live within or without the territory; neither territory, 
nor race, nor creed can limit Christian charity. In its relation to the 
poor the church will always be in the future, as she has been in the 
past, in advance of the state in all examples of beneficence. 



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St. Peter’s Cathedral, Rome. 






















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


479 


At the Catholic Columbian Congress held in the Art Institute, 
Chicago, in 1893, were read a number of valuable papers, prepared 
especially for that noteable event by leading clergymen and laymen. 
These papers were not so much doctrinal in form, but were rather 
intended to properly place before the public the relations of the 
Catholic Church with the political civil and social institutions of the 
United States. The leaders of the church fully appreciated the mag¬ 
nificent opportunity presented, and readily avaded themselves of it. 
Extracts from the more important of these papers are given herewith. 

The paper read by Edgar H. Gans, of Baltimore, was an able 
presentation of the view that the Catholic church is in no respect 
antagonistic to American principles, social, civil or religious, but, on 
the contrary, its prosperity is compatible with the truest and highest 
development of the country, both material and moral. 

“ The fundamental idea of the American system of government is 
the sovereignty of the people. It is a government by the people and 
for the people. The halls of congress and of the state legislatures are 
filled, not with rulers, but with representatives of the people elected to 
carry out their ideas. The people themselves make and unmake ad¬ 
ministrations. Their policy ultimately becomes the policy of the 
government. They are in reality the rulers; the true sovereigns. 
They govern themselves. 

“ Above all, the government cannot pass any law respecting 
the establishment of religion, nor interfere, in any way, with the 
liberty of every man to worship God in such manner as his conscience 
may dictate. 

“ This is the American system. The relations of the church are 
therefore discerned in her relations to the sovereign people; the in¬ 
fluence she exerts is over their minds and hearts, and she affects our 
national life by fashioning and directing their lives and conduct. 

“ Instead of finding in the potent moral influence which the church 
exerts over the people anything hostile to American institutions, the 
candid inquirer will discover in her teaching and tendencies the 
strongest safeguards for their permanence and stability. 

“ Government, according to the Catholic church, is ordained by 
God. The Catholic is loyal to the American government as the 
legitimately established government of this country, not because it is 
stronger than he. His principle of submission is not founded upon his 
idea of physical force, nor yet entirely upon his strong affection and 
patriotic predilection for its great principles. He is of necessity loyal 
because it is his conscientious duty. Patriotism is sublimated and be¬ 
comes a religious obligation. Is there anything un-American in thisr 
Does this teaching not tend to make good citizens? 

“Among the many evils that afflict the body politic none is 
more deplorable than the frequency with which the will of the people 
is frustrated by frauds in elections. This has been the theme of 
statesmen and political moralists for years. All recognize it as 
the cancer which has been insiduously attacking the very life of 


480 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the nation, which must be eradicated and destroyed if we are to pre¬ 
serve our institutions in their integrity. 

Here, again, the church intervenes. According to the teaching 
of our learned doctors, the political sovereignty which is vested in a 
nation, under the ordinance of God, is vested so that it may be 
used for the public good. When the people exercise sovereign 
political power they exercise a power given to them by the Great 
Sovereign, in trust, and they are bound in conscience to perform the 
trust honestly and with fidelity. 

Thus another fundamental political duty is transformed into 
a conscientious obligation. As no man can be disloyal to his govern¬ 
ment and be a good Catholic, so no man can be a good Catholic and 
pollute the ballot-box, or in any other way fraudulently frustrate the 
electoral of the people. Is this teaching un-American? 

All the hostile criticism of the church in this connection rests 
upon an ignorance of the real nature of liberty. To many unreflect¬ 
ing persons the word liberty conveys no meaning except the absence 
of restraint, the absence of any external power controlling the will. 
For them liberty means the right to follow their own wills and inclina¬ 
tions without let or hindrance. This, however, is the liberty of 
anarchy; it is not American liberty. We are free American citizens, 
but may we do as we like? May a man make a contract with me and 
break it with impunity? May he injure my property, infringe my 
rights or personal security, obstruct the conduct of my legitimate 
business, steal my goods, put a bullet through my brain, without be¬ 
coming a subject for the coercive discipline of the law of the land? 

Men cannot live together without government, and government 
implies the restraining influence of law. 

Therefore by the highest American authority, for the security of 
liberty, governments a^e instituted and constitutions ordained and es¬ 
tablished. Liberty cannot exist without the authority of government 
exercised under the forms of law. 

Our American institutions are justly deemed the masterpiece of 
human contrivance for securing government which will rule only for 
the general good. It is in accomplishing precisely this result that the 
church uplifts and sustains the weak hands of men by her potent 
spiritual power. 

The Catholic church has been the only consistent teacher and 
supporter of true liberty. In her spiritual empire over the souls of 
men she is a government instituted and established not by the people 
but by God Himself. She administers laws; but they are divine, not 
human laws. Her children are protected from spiritual despotism; 
not by checks and balances of human contrivance, but by the sacred 
guaranty of the divine promise. 

“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ” 

The Catholic church has been divinely commissioned to teach 
the truth; and in the possession of the truth her children alone have 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


481 


true liberty. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make 
you free. With the church spiritual freedom, as well as civil liberty, 
is possible only with law and government. 

“ Is there anything un-American in this? Is it un-American to say 
that there is a sovereignty higher than the sovereignty of the people? 
Is it un-American to acknowledge subjection to God and to His gov¬ 
ernment? The American people are not, we think, prepared to admit 
that atheism, infidelity and irreligion are part and parcel of their 
institutions. 

But from whatever point of view we examine our American insti¬ 
tutions we find them supported and sustained by the church. The 
declaration of independence declares that “All men are created equal,” 
and we have endeavored to follow the spirit of this truth in the prac¬ 
tical workings of our government, by giving each man an equal voice 
in the conduct of affairs, by discouraging ranks and classes and by 
insisting upon perfect equality before the laws of the land. 

But this democratic equality pales into insignificance before that 
taught and practiced by the church. In her eyes all men are equal 
because they are sons of the same Father and joint heirs of the heav¬ 
enly treasure. Before her altars there is no precedence. The laborer 
on our streets has for companion the financial magnate; the lowly 
negro, once a slave in our southern clime, bows with reverential awe 
side by side with the refined chivalric scholar, once his master, and the 
Magdalen mingles her penitential tears with the chaste aspiration of 
the white-souled nun. No such real democracy can be found ou*tside 
the Catholic church. 

And finally, let us consider another striking characteristic of our 
American life. We boast with proper pride of the equal opportunity 
which every citizen has of rising, by his own merit, to the highest 
position of political honor. Any poor boy in the land has the right to 
aspire to a seat in congress, to be vested with the judicial ermine or 
supreme honor, to occupy the chair once filled by Washington. 
There is nothing in the nature of our institutions which will make the 
fulfillment of his ambitious hopes impracticable. The brightest names 
in our history are the names of men who have sprung from an origin 
as lowly as his own. 

Have we not in the church in America a most notable illustration 
of this equality? An humble American citizen is an august prince of 
the church. In him we have a living proof of all the principles for 
which we have been contending. He is a prince of the church; and 
yet, is he hostile to democracy? He is infused with the very quint¬ 
essence of the Catholic spirit; and yet, is he not the very incarnation 
of true Americanism? He knows full well the plentitude of his spirit¬ 
ual power, its high dignity, its wonderful authority; and yet, is he an 
enemy of American liberty? The whole country knows and acknowl¬ 
edges that within the entire confines of the republic there is no more 
ardent patriot, no more enthusiastic supporter of our American insti¬ 
tutions than the gentle, modest, illustrious James Gibbons, cardinal 

archbishop of Baltimore. 

31 



Interior of St. Peter’s Cathedral, Rome. 




















































THE RELIGIONS OF 1 HE WORLD. 


483 


“ The Missionary Work of the Church in the United States ” was the 
succeeding paper by the well known Paulist Father, Rev. Walter Elliott, 
of New York. In giving his view of the outlook for the extension 
and propagation of the Catholic faith within the United States, Prather 
Elliott suggested: 

Only make a parallel of Catholic principles and American funda¬ 
mental ideas on human dignity, and you will perceive that we are up 
to the times and kindred to the nation. There can belittle doubt that 
this republic shall be made Catholic if we love its people as God would 
have us. We are right, and we can prove it. I do not want to believe 
those prophets of ill-omen who tell us that we are shortly to find our¬ 
selves in the midst of a nation which has lost the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ as its redeemer, which knows no heaven or hell but the sorrows 
and joys of this fleeting life; but there is much to confirm that gloomy 
view. And what voice shall call them back from so dark a doom but 
the trumpet note of Catholic truth? Who should be foremost in print 
and on platform and in the intercourse of private life, pleading for 
Christ and offering His promises of eternal joy, if not Catholic bishops, 
priests and laity? 

The diffusion of Catholics among non-Catholics makes a personal 
and independent tone of Catholicity necessary in any case, but it also 
distributes missionaries everywhere, independent religious characters 
who can maintain the truth with the least possible external help. It is 
God’s way. One by one men are born, become conscious of responsi¬ 
bility, die, are judged. One by one, and by personal influence, non- 
Catholics are made aware that they are wrong; and then one, and again 
another of their Catholic friends .personally influence them to under¬ 
stand that Catholicity is right. 

Councils have done much for religion, but men and women have 
done more, for they made the councils. There were great councils 
during the two hundred years before Trent, and with them and be¬ 
tween them matters grew worse. Why did Trent succeed? held amid 
wars, interrupted, almost disjointed. Because the right sort of men 
at last had come—popes, bishops, theologians. It was not new enact¬ 
ments that saved us, but new men—Ignatius and Philip Neri, Teresa 
and Francis de Sales and Vincent de Paul, and their like.” 

The Relations of the Civil Government and the Catholic Citizen,” 
was the third paper, by Walter George Smith, of Philadelphia. He 
contended that: The church and the state, as corporations or exter¬ 
nal governing bodies, are indeed separate in their spheres, and the 
church does not absorb the state, nor does the state the church, but 
both are from God, and both work to the same ends, and when each 
is rightly understood there is no antithesis or antagonism between 
them. Men serve God in serving the state as directly as in serving 
the church. He who dies on the battlefield fighting for his country 
ranks with him who dies at the stake for his faith. Civic virtues are 
themselves religious virtues, or at least virtues without which there 
are are no religious virtues, since no man who loves not his brother 
does or can love God. 


484 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE IVORLZ). 


The state then does not proceed from the church, nor the church 
from the state. But as to the form of government the church has no 
dogma. In the language of Balmes, ‘ the Roman pontiff acknowl¬ 
edges equally as his son the Catholic seated upon the bench of an 
American assembly and the most humble subject of the most powerful 
monarch. The Catholic religion is too prudent to descend upon any 
such ground. Like a tender mother speaking to her son, she says to 
him: ‘Provided /ou depart not from my instructions do what you 
consider most prudent.' “ (Protestantism and Catholicity Compared,” 

P- 357 )- 

As has been said by Cardinal Gibbons: ‘ Our holy father, Leo 
XIII, in his luminous encyclical on the constitution of Christian states, 
declares that the church is not committed to any particular form of 
civil government; she adapts herself to all. She leaves all to the 
sacred leaven of the Gospel * * * in the congenial atmosphere of 

liberty; she blossoms as the rose.’ (Quoted by Fr. Hecker—“The 
Church and the Age,” p. ioi.) 

Such being the doctrine of the church upon civil government, why 
should there be any doubt or distrust of American Catholics in the 
minds of their fellow citizens? So long as the theory of our repub¬ 
lican constitution is carried into practical operation there can be no 
clashing between the duties owed by the Catholic citizen to his church 
and to his state. The cry that he is bound by allegiance to a foreign 
government because he recognizes the Pope as the visible head of his 
church, is unfair and confusing. 

No Catholic need be confused in his efforts to perform his duty 
to the state. The present age, as far as we can know, presents prob¬ 
lems for solution, more difficult than any that have preceded it, more 
difficult because history affords no precedents by which men may act 
upon them. Evils of social life have become so obvious and so 
dangerous that the best thought of all people is concentrated upon 
their considera'ion. Men of undoubted sincerity and of heroic cour¬ 
age, deceived by their own ardor and generous impulses and without 
guidance from spiritual authority, have not hesitated to advocate theo¬ 
ries of relief that involve the complete revolution of that order which 
has been accepted as second only to revelation. While the church 
teaches and has taught that the right of private ownership of property, 
while not directly of divine ordinance, is yet essential to the well 
ordered happiness of mankind, the so-called philosophers of the revo¬ 
lution advocate its unconditional abolition; while the church main¬ 
tains the doctrines of personal libercy and individualism, the tendency 
of the revolution is to absorb the individual in the state. The revolu¬ 
tion bases its arguments upon the assumption of a social contract and 
the perfect ability, if not the perfection of human nature per se\ the 
church looks upon government as a mediate ordinance of God, arising 
from the constitution of man, and human nature as imperfect, tainted 
with sin. The revolution insists that the popular will, and the popular 
will alone, is the supreme fount of justice.” 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


485 


The succeeding papers of the day related to the personages and 
events connected with the discovery of the New World; that on 
“Columbus,” by Dr. Richard H. Clarke, of New York, was a learned 
dissertation on the career and character of the illustrious Genoese de¬ 
signed to be a vindication of his character from the various charges 
and assaults made, especially by recent writers. Miss Mary J. Ona- 
han read a bright paper on “Queen Isabella,” which was highly praised. 
Miss Onahan had the honor of being the first woman to address a 
Catholic congress in the United States. The subjoined extract will 
best indicate the spirit of the paper: 

Woman’s faith, called until proved, woman’s credulity, once more 
rose triumphant, and Isabella has no fairer crown than that woven by 
her trusted and valiant admiral. ‘In the midst of the general 
incredulity,’ wrote Columbus, ‘the Almighty infused into the queen, 
my lady, the spirit of intelligence and energy, and whilst everyone 
was expatiating only on the inconvenience and cost, her highness, on 
the contrary, approved it, and gave it all the support in her power.’ 

Religious zeal had dictated the war against the Moors, religious 
zeal urged Isabella to sanction the seemingly hopeless voyage of 
Columbus, and when these voyages were crowned with success, her 
first solicitude was the welfare of the benighted and helpless natives. 
It was under her special protection that he set sail on his fourth 
voyage, from which Isabella did not live to see him return. 

As a queen, Isabella attained the greatest glory; as a mother, she 
was called upon to endure the deepest sorrow. The anguish of a 
father’s or mother’s heart at the loss, the ruin of a loved child—that, 
indeed, must be something that only they who have felt it in all its 
anguish and all its bitterness can ever fathom. While her husband 
was engaged in his brilliant wars in Italy and the great captain, Gon- 
salvo de Cordova, was daily adding new glories to the crown of Spain; 
while the fame of that great prince of the church, Cardinal Ximenes, 
was spreading throughout Europe, Isabella’s life clouded by domestic 
misfortune began gradually to decline. One after another her chil¬ 
dren had been taken from her by death and by misfortune worse than 
death. Her only son, Don John, died three months after his marriage. 
Her favorite daughter and namesake lived but a year after her nuptials 
with the King of Portugal, and their infant son, on whom were founded 
all the hopes of the succession, survived her but a few months. Isa¬ 
bella’s second daughter, Joanna, married to Philip, Prince of the 
Netherlands, became insane, and there can be no sadder history than 
that of her youngest child, Donna Catalina, memorable in history as 
Catherine of Aragon. 

These and other misfortunes clouded Isabella’s years. When she 
felt the end to be not far distant, she made deliberate and careful dis¬ 
position of her affairs. Even on a bed of sickness she followed with 
interest the affairs of her kingdom, received distinguished foreigners 
and took part in the direction of her affairs. 

‘ I have come to Castile,’ said Prosper Colonna on being presented 


486 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


to King Ferdinand, ‘ to behold the woman who from her sick bed rules 
the world.’ 

There was no interest in her kingdom, her colonies or her house¬ 
hold that she neglected. In her celebrated testament she provided 
munificently for charities, for marriage portions to poor girls, and for 
the redemption of Christian captives in Barbary. Patriotism and hu¬ 
manity breathed in its every line, she warned her successor to treat 
with gentleness and consideration the natives of the new world added 
to Spain; warned them also never to surrender the lortress of Gibraltar. 

By her dying words,” says Prescott, ‘ she displayed the same re¬ 
spect for the rights and liberties of the nation that she had shown 
through life, striving to secure the blessings of her benign administra¬ 
tion to the most distant and barbarous regions under her sway.’ 

The woman whom life had not daunted, death could not dismay. 
On the 26th of November, 1501, Isabella the Catholic breathed her 
last, in the fifty-fourth year of her age and the thirtieth of her reign. 

The queen and true woman she had proved herself through life, 
true queen and true woman she proved herself in death. The Catholic 
church is not ashamed of the ideal in womanhood that it presents—an 
ideal that it has upheld for centuries, an ideal that is still shining as 
a new risen star, serene and beautiful in the summer sky. The 
queenly scepter of Isabella was laid aside, the womanly frame had 
long since crumbled into dust, but the church of which she was so 
valiant a daughter, the church that crowns her with that fairest of her 
titles, is not dead. It lives. 

The Consequences and Results of the Discovery of the New 
World,” was the concluding paper of the first day’s session, by Geo. 
Parsons Lathrop, of New London, Conn. He remarked: 

It is a good thing that all sects found outlet here and were ena¬ 
bled to carry on their battle to the fullest extent. It was a good thing 
that the Puritans should enter freely and have their way and fancy that 
they possessed the whole world. Spain, France and England—these 
three powers vied with each other in colonizing and trying to possess 
the New World, and especially this northern part of it. France and 
Spain were Catholic, and they rendered us the service of tingeing the 
country deeply with their faith. England became anti-Catholic, and 
did her best to expunge the faith from this realm which came un¬ 
der her rule. Yet as history has resulted the church at last found her 
surest foothold in this country under the anti-Catholic dominion which 
had tried so hard to suppress her, and the church has attained here in 
a single century of freedom a growth never paralleled in modern his¬ 
tory. This was one of the most important results to religion of the 
discovery of America. 

True liberty is what the church most inculcates, and what it most 
needs. It has found it at last in this country where at first its pros¬ 
pect of doing so seemed most unlikely. It is by such paradoxes that 
the divine power works, regardless of the self-interest or even the most 
selfish foresight and planning of men. The complete separation of 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


487 


church from state, which exists here, has been an immense advantage 
to religion, and will continue to be so by assuring it of entire inde¬ 
pendence in the pursuit of its spiritual aims. 

The great event of the Congress was the appearance of Monsignor 
Satolli, the papal delegate, Tuesday forenoon, immediately the formal 
organization had been completed. When he entered the hall the 
assembled thousands burst into a storm of cheers; the ladies waved 
handkerchiefs. Indeed, rarely has a scene of such widespread enthu¬ 
siasm been witnessed in any public assemblage. It was a striking 
testimony of the respect and affection with which the papal delegate 
is regarded by his co-religionists, the Catholic public in the United 
States. Archbishop Ireland translated his speech into English: 

I beg leave to repeat, in unmusical tones, a few of the thoughts 
that his excellency, the most right reverend apostolic delegate, has 
presented to you in his own beautiful and musical Italian language. 
The delegate expresses his great delight to be this morning in the 
presence of the Catholic Columbian Congress. He begs leave to offer 
you the salutation of the great pontiff, Leo XIII. In the name of Leo 
he salutes the spiritual children of the church on this American conti¬ 
nent; in the name of Leo he salutes the great American Republic 
herself. 

It is,” he says, “a magnificent spectacle to see laymen, priests and 
bishops assembled here together to discuss the vital social problems 
which the modern conditions of humanity bring up before us. The 
advocates of error have their congresses. Why should not the friends 
and advocates of truth have their congresses? This congress assem¬ 
bled here today will, no doubt, be productive of rich and magnificent 
results. You have met to show that the church, while opening to men 
the treasures of heaven, offers also felicity on earth. As St. Paul has 
said, “She is made for earth and heaven; she is the promise of the 
future life and the life that is.” All congresses are, so to speak, con¬ 
centrations of great forces. Your object is to consider the social forces 
that God has provided, and to apply, as far as you can, to the special 
circumstances of your own time and country these great principles. 

The great social forces are thought, will and action. In a congress 
you bring before you these three great forces. Thought finds its food 
in truth; so in all that you do, in all the practical conclusions that you 
formulate, you must bear in mind that they must all rest upon the 
eternal principles of truth. Will is the rectitude of the human heart, 
and until the human heart is voluntarily subjected to truth and virtue 
all social reforms are impossible. Then comes action, which aims at 
the acquisition of the good needed for the satisfaction of mankind; 
and this again must be regulated by truth in thought and by virtue in 
the human will. The well-being of society consists in the perfect order 
of the different elements toward the great scope of society. Order is 
the system of the different relations of the different elements, one to 
the other, and these relations to which men are subject are summarized 
in three words—God, man and nature. 


488 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Men should not devote their whole being and all their energies to 
the seeking out of mere matter. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”— 
that is, free and independent of the shackles of mere matter. 
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice”—justice first 
before self-satisfaction, before all attention to one’s personal wants. 
And “Blessed are the merciful.” Blessed are they who know and feel 
that they don’t live for themselves, whose hearts go out in sweetest 
mercy to all their fellows. History has proven that human reason 
alone does not solve the great social problems. These problems were 
spoken of in the pre-Christian times, and Aristotle and Plato dis¬ 
cussed them. But pre-Christian times gave us a world of slavery, 
when the multitude lived only for the benefit of the few. 

Let us restore among men justice and charity. Let us teach men 
to be prompt ever to make sacrifice of self for the common good. 
This is the foundation of all social elevating movements; it is the 
foundation of your own congress. Now, all these great principles 
have been marked out in the most luminous lines in the encyclicals of 
the great pontiff, Leo XIII. We then study those encyclicals; hold 
fast to them as the safest anchorage. The social questions are being 
studied the world over. It is well they should be studied in America, 
for here do we have more than elsewhere the keys to the future. 
Here in America you have a country blessed specially by providence 
in the fertility of its fields and the liberty of its institutions. Here 
you have a country which will pay back all efforts, not merely tenfold, 
but a hundredfold; and this no one understands better than the im¬ 
mortal Leo, and he charges his delegates to speak out to America 
words of hope and blessing. 

Then in conclusion, the delegate begs of you American Catholics 
to be fully loyal to your great mission and to the duties which your 
circumstances impose upon you. Here are golden words spoken by 
the delegate in concluding his discourse: 4 Go forward, in one hand 
bearing the book of Christian truth and in the other the constitution 
of the United States.’ Christian truth and American liberty will make 
you free, happy and prosperous. They will put you on the road to 
progress. May your steps ever persevere on that road. Again he 
salutes you with all his heart. Again he expresses his delight to be 
with you, and again speaks forth to you in strongest and sweetest 
tones the love of your holy father, Leo XIII. 

Following Monsignor Satolli’s address, Count Francis de Kuef- 
stein, a distinguished Austrian nobleman well known in Rome, was 
introduced. He received a cordial reception and having returned 
thanks in English for the welcome, and expressed his pleasure at the 
privilege of being permitted to take part in this memorable congress, 
the count continued his address in French, in which language he said 
he could more fully express his sentiments. 

The great question of the congress, “The Social Question,” was 
then taken up. The introductory address was delivered by Right Rev. 
John A. Watterson, bishop, of Columbus, Ohio. The address was one 



His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII 









490 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


of the most brilliant and thoughtful delivered during the congress. 
Indeed, it proved, as it was intended should be the case, the keynote 
of the subsequent discussion. Particularly acceptable to the vast 
gathering was the eloquent tribute which the bishop paid to the holy 
father for the masterly manner in which his famous encyclicals ex¬ 
pose the evils that beset modern society and suggest remedies for their 
removal. The bishop’s declarations that the present glorious pontiff, 
by his personal dignity, his wisdom and his firmness, is teaching peo¬ 
ple that the Pope is a good thing in the world and for the world, and 
convincing all intellects that if society is to be saved from the fate 
that threatens it, its salvation must come from the Vatican, were 
among the most notable ones of the whole congress and were ap¬ 
plauded to the echo. The bishop said: Truth is the sap that gives 

the tree of society its blossoms, foliage and fruit; it is the generous 
blood, which coursing through the social body gives it life and energy 
and beauty unto all the ends for which it was established by Almighty 
God. And wherever truth is abandoned or disregarded, society must 
suffer; and society is suffering today, because, to a large extent, it has 
practically rejected the great fundamental principles of Christianity, 
and substituted mere material and selfish interest, as the moving and 
dominating force in the life of individuals and nations. Behold, then, 
why Leo XIII. is recalling to the intellects of men those great bed¬ 
rock truths, on which the health and life of nations and society de¬ 
pend. Leo XIII. like many of his illustrious predecessors in similar 
conditions of men, is fulfilling his special mission by defending the 
masses of the people against the oppressions of avarice and injustice, 
and showing the shallowness and dangers of the social theories and 
mere philosophism of today, while at the same time upholding the 
rights of legitimate authority. Instead of the old teachings, which 
give us such clear and precise views of our intellect, our passions, our 
will, our duties to ourselves, the family, the state, the church, society 
and God, what have rationalists, materialists, socialists, and other 
mere humanitarians been offering to mankind? They have been de¬ 
livering natural reason itself to uncertainties the most poignant, and 
society to disorders, the inevitable consequence of a teaching without 
sound principles and therefore without true morality. By awakening 
the love of strong and wholesome principles in the hearts of men 
capable of understanding, by inviting attention to the duties as well as 
the rights of men and calling a return to those simple Christian truths, 
on which society was reformed by our Divine Redeemer, Leo XIII. has 
been doing a grand work, not only for the present but for every future 
generation. There is not a question vital to modern society that he has 
not touched and solved in his great encyclicals on Human Liberty, 
Political Power, The Christian Constitution of the State, the Duties of 
Citizens, and the Condition of Labor. By his depth of thought, the 
wisdom of his teachings, his close touch and his tender sympathy with 
the wants and interests of all humanity and the sagacity of the fears, 
which he expresses for the future of nations, his letters have won the 
admiration of the very enemies of Christianity. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


491 


It is within the lines traced out in the encyclicals of Leo XIII., 
and by the application of the remedies there suggested; it is by the 
cooperation of church and state, and the return of capital and labor 
to the basic law of evangelical love; it is by civil legislation, inspired 
by Christianity and directed to the good, not of one class only, but of 
all the people, that a better social condition is to be brought about. 
Nor can the Catholic church be ignored in this great work. On the 
contrary she is to be the most potent factor in reaching the consum¬ 
mation devoutly to be wished by all the lovers of their kind. And 
you, Catholic laymen and women, are to have an intelligent and act¬ 
ive part in the needed improvement of society. You are to help by 
good example and in various other ways. Spread the encyclicals of 
our Holy Father Leo XIII., not only among those of the household of 
the faith, but also among your brethren outside of the church. Make 
them known to those with whom you are brought into companionship 
in social and business life, and the seeds thus sown will have a happy 
fruitage. The church needs to organize Catholic workmen into safe 
and healthy associations; but whether it is better in the circumstances 
of our country to band them into Catholic associations under exclu¬ 
sive Catholic direction or to try to desecularize existing societies and 
infuse into them more of the spirit of Christianity, is a question that I 
leave to the deliberations of this congress. 

Teach the poor that while inequalities of condition always have 
existed and always will exist as long as human nature remains what 
human nature is, they are not on this account to be wanting in Chris¬ 
tian love for those who are more favored with material prosperity. 
They are to bear in mind the beautiful lesson of that wonderful Ser¬ 
mon on the Mount, in which our Saviour lays the foundation of the 
Christian system of society: ‘'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs 
is the kingdom of heaven.” Wealth is not an absolute good, and 
therefore patience and resignation in the spirit of the Gospel are to be 
practiced, while at the same time the admonition of St. Paul must be 
heeded: “If any man will not work, i. e., if he be unwilling to work, 
let him not eat.” Let all, rich and poor, be mindful of their duties to 
one another; and then if all will learn the lesson in practice as well as 
theory, Christianity shall again have occasion, as in the ages of faith, 
to exult in the triumph of her principles, and the world to exclaim as 
in ancient days: ‘ Behold, how they love one another.’ Upon this 
triumph of the future Leo XIII. will have his influence, and you, ladies 
and gentlemen, will have yours too, if you will be only true to your¬ 
selves and the great Christian responsibilities that rest upon you as 
citizens and Catholics. 

The encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., on “The Conditions of Labor,” 
was treated in a carefully prepared exposition of the Pope’s teaching 
on the subject by Hon. Judge Semple, of Alabama. The distinguished 
gentleman declared that: the platform of Catholics on the condition 
of labor was announced by Leo XIII. in the encyclical ‘Rerum No- 
varum.’ This paper seeks to gather a syllabus of leading social piin- 


492 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


ciples from that immortal document which called forth letters ot thanks 
from the emperor of Germany and the president of the French repub¬ 
lic, and which shows the head of the church as the reverend counsellor 
of states, the father of Christians and the friend of the people. All 
agree and no one can deny that some remedy must be found, and 
quickly found, for the misery and wretchedness which press so heavily 
at this moment on the large majority of the very poor. But where is 
it to be found? Socialism steps forward and answers: ‘ I have found 
it; I am the redeemer of society. I will vest all property in the state. 
I will give it the sole administration, and it shall distribute to each ac¬ 
cording to his needs. Thus I will abolish poverty and bring back the 
golden age of universal equality.’ 

No’, replies the holy father. ‘Your project is at once futile, un¬ 
just and pernicious. It is futile, for if all goods must forever remain 
common, where is the workingman’s hope of bettering his condition 
by industry and economy? Where is his liberty, his inalienable right 
to invest his wages permanently and profitably, to dispose freely of 
the fruit of his sweat?’ 

But, above all, it is emphatically unjust. Centralization of prop¬ 
erty in the state violates natural rights. The state cannot take away 
the right to acquire property, for this right is from God. 

This natural right to acquire and hold property is manifested 
more clearly still in the rights and duties of the father of the family. 
What right more clear, what duty more sacred for the father than to 
provide for his offspring against the wretchedness of want in this 
mortal life? Yet by what other means can this sacred duty be fulfilled 
than by the acquisition and ownership of permanent property, to be 
transmitted by inheritance? 

Socialism would introduce discord and confusion, dry up the very 
sources of production and destroy the chief spur of genius, and its 
boasted equality would be an equality in wretchedness and misery and 
of universal enslavement to the state. Nothing could be more unjust 
or more disastrous than thus to deny man’s natural rights, so manifest 
to our reason and so strongly confirmed by the morally universal 
consent of mankind, by the practice of all ages, by the sanction of 
positive human laws, by the divine law itself, which forbids us even to 
cast a covetous look on our neighbor’s house or his field or anything 
that is his. Therefore socialism is manifestly futile, unjust and per¬ 
nicious, and cannot be the remedy which we seek. 

How, then, shall we soften the asperities arising from the friction 
of labor and capital? For they are not naturally hostile, but friends. 

The vicar of the Prince of Peace declares that this blessed result 
demands the harmonious cooperation of all the agencies involved, of 
the laborer and the capitalist, the rich and the poor, the state and 
private societies. But, he adds, that all their efforts will be vain with¬ 
out the aid of religion, with the principles which she brings forth from 
the Gospel. For, in the first place, religion, as the herald of God, 
teaches men the duties of justice. It says to the workingman; ‘ Per- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


493 


form faithfully and scrupulously the labor which you have freely and 
fail ly promised. Respect the person and property of your employer. 
Never resort to violence, even in representing your just rights. Above 
all, shun the company of men of evil principles, of men who delude 
you with vain hopes and lead you to disaster, denying the necessity of 
that painful labor which was imposed by our Maker and not done 
away with by our Blessed Redeemer, but only sweetened by His ex¬ 
ample, and grace and promises.’ 

The Son of God was Himself a poor man and a carpenter, and He 
made it plain to all ages by His example that dignity is in worth and 
not in wealth, and He taught us that the only patl/to heaven is that 
stained by His bloody footprints. 

How, then, can society be cured in our day? By a return to a 
pure Christianity and submission to its health-giving precepts and 
practices. What are the counsels of the holy father to the state for 
the improvement of the condition of labor? The state is reminded 
that while it exists for the common good it has a special duty to the 
workingmen and to the poor. For they are the most numerous class and 
are so engrossed by their daily necessities as to have little leisure or 
capacity for the thoughtful and prudent consideration of their own spe¬ 
cial interests; while the capitalists and employers, fewer in number, 
strong in wealth and with an abundance of leisure, may spend their 
days and nights in scheming to add more and more to their gain, and 
striving to diminish yet more the share of the workingman in the prod¬ 
uct of his labor. The power of the state should be exerted in behalf 
of the weak to lighten their burdens by wise and wholesome adminis¬ 
tration, and by striving to secure to them a reasonable subsistence as 
the price of their toil and some provision for their necessities in time 
of hardship. This it may well do without suspicion of undue partiality 
for it comes to the help of the weak. 

The state may regulate the natural right to acquire property, but 
it has no authority to abolish it by the drain and exhaustion of excess¬ 
ive taxation. At present one of the greatest evils we endure is that 
society is too nearly divided into classes of the very rich and the very 
poor. One of these exercises the great power of wealth, it grasps all 
labor and all trade, it manipulates for its own profit all the sources of 
supply, and is always powerfully represented in the councils of the state. 
On the other side stand the sore and suffering multitude, always ready 
in their distress to listen to the extravagant promises of irresponsible 
advisers, and prone to violence. 

It is also incumbent on the state to protect the workingman’s 
enjoyment of the Sunday rest; not to be devoted to vicious excess, 
but that he may forget, at least, for one day in the week, mere worldly 
cares, and turn his face and his thoughts upward to his Maker. For 
nothing is more conducive to the strength of the state than the moral¬ 
ity of her citizens, and true morality is always founded on religion. 
The workingman himself cannot agree to the servitude of his soul, and 
no one has a right to stand in the way of his enjoyment of that higher 
life which prepares him for the joys of heaven. 



Archbishop P. J. Ryan, Philadelphia 




the religions oe the world. 


495 


Duties of Capital ” was the subject of the paper by Rev. Dr. 
William Barry, of Dorchester, England, defining the nature and proper 
uses of wealth. The writer says: The end or purpose of wealth is not 
simply the production of more wealth, nor is it the selfish enjoyment 
even of those who produce it. Man is a moral and religious being, and 
the industries which exhaust so large a part of his time, thought and 
labor should be carried out under the law which is supreme in con¬ 
science. To make, or increase, or distribute wealth is a social function. 
It is so because man was intended to live in society, because society 
does in fact acknowledge and secure his individual rights, and because 
no one of his single, unaided efforts could store up the accumulated 
resources to which these “ few rich people ” are indebted for their 
leisure and luxury. If, then, capital, by which I mean private prop¬ 
erty yielding a revenue, is to exist in a Christian commonwealth, it 
must fulfill its duties to the public. For it is a trust given to the indi¬ 
vidual on condition of his exercising the social function which corre¬ 
sponds to it, as a Christian ought. 

Leo XIII. defines it to be a sin against justice when one man ap¬ 
propriates, whether in the shape of profit, or of tax, or of interest, the 
fruits of another man’s industry without rendering him an equal return. 
He does not say that the return must be directly economical, but cer¬ 
tainly he does mean that there ought to be an adequate return of some 
sort. The rich man, therefore, whose riches are nothing else than the 
surplus fruits of his fellows’ toil, is bound, first, to render a just human 
wage to the toiler, and, second, to so employ his wealth, which has 
been put into his hands as, on the whole to make the condition of those 
who toil, more advantageous to them than if private capital did not 
exist. 

In other words, private capital is an expedient, like constitutional 
government or manhood suffrage, by which the great ends of society 
are meant to be furthered. If it does this, it is justified; if it does not, 
how can it endure? The resources of civilization are earned by one 
set of men, and disposed of by another. I will not call that an in¬ 
iquitous arrangement. But it stands to reason that those who distribute 
are bound to do so for the good of the social organization, which they 
do, in fact, govern. 

Therefore, as ‘the end of all commerce ’ is not ‘ individual gain,’ 
so it Is righteousness, and not anarchic revolution, which insists on 
teaching capitalists their duties toward the organism which supports 
them. Let us reckon up some of these duties. 

“ Negatively, capitalists have no right to interfere with the working¬ 
men’s right to combine in the trades unions, and hence they cannot, 
fairly require their workingmen to give up belonging to such associa¬ 
tions, nor can they make it the condition of a just contract. 

Again, they have no right to take advantage of this distress of 
human beings by beating down the just price of labor; to do so is usury, 
and has been condemned times out of number by the Catholic author¬ 
ities. 


496 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Nor must they lay upon their workmen inhuman tasks, whether as 
regards the length, quality or conditions of labor. And the whole leg¬ 
islation of factory acts; inspection and the protection of women and 
children is in its idea as truly economic as it is Christian, and capitalists 
ought not to complain of it. Further, the lowest fair wage is one which 
although varying according to country, sex and time of life, will enable 
the worker to fulfill the ordinary duties of humanity, to keep God's law 
and to provide against sickness and old age. 

It is the bounden duty of capitalists to allow their work people the 
Sunday rest. Corporations are as much under these obligations and 
bound to fulfill them as individuals. Work people cannot justly con¬ 
tract themselves out of these and similar rights. And every agree¬ 
ment to disregard them is so far null and void. 

Again, it is elementary good sense, as well as law, that lying, cheat¬ 
ing and misrepresentation when they enter into the substance of a con¬ 
tract make it of no effect. And that he who has stolen, whether from 
the public or from private citizens, is bound to restore. And that the 
greater the robbery the greaterthe sin. And that even a state is capa¬ 
ble of robbing its citizens collectively, as when it surrenders without a 
proper equivalent rights of way, or public lands, or the common right 
of market; and, in general, when it creates or suffers to grow up un¬ 
checked monopolies which take an undue share of the products of 
labor, and which violate the economic freedom of others. To make 
thieves restore their ill-gotten goods, to put down 4 rings and corners,’ 
to safeguard the health, morals and religious freedom of its citizens are 
duties incumbent on the state, especially when the majority of the peo¬ 
ple seem to be at the mercy of private capitalists. Nor can it be objected 
that these things constitute an 4 intolerable interference with the rights 
of property,’ for property never has any right to do wrong. 

All this means, then, the imperative necessity of a constitution for 
capital. Religion furnishes the ideal, morality the grounds, and law 
and custom the methods upon which this mighty task is to be achieved. 
To make democracy a real thing is all one with limiting, defining and 
Christianizing the powers of those who wield at present according to 
their good pleasure, the material resources gathered by the thought, 
labor and pe-rseverance of millions upon millions. 

What, then, should the people do in this day of their political 
supremacy? Two things, I answer. They should insist, by custom 
and legislation, on making the contract between capitalist and work¬ 
ingman a just human bargain, on the lines so plainly drawn out by 
Leo XIII., in his encyclical. And they should defend by every fair 
means at their disposal, the rights of public property, which is, in fact, 
their property, not permitting it to be sold, or squandered, or stolen 
away, under pretense that the individual who is going to get rich by 
appropriating it has acquired a legal claim upon that which, in such 
absolute fashion, never could legally have been made over to him. 

If all this amounts to no less than reforming your legislatures, 
then in God’s name set about reforming them, root and branch. And 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


497 


if a mandate to your executive is required, shall it never be forthcom¬ 
ing? Is not the responsibility of a free citizen something which he 
neither can nor ought to give to another? Your political freedom 
should bring with it economic justice. There is little meaning else in 
that Declaration of Independence which is written upon American 
hearts. 

Our hope is that the Christian democracy of America will, by 
peaceful and appropriate legislation, put an end to these things which 
have lasted too long. It seems to me, in an especial way, the duty 
of Christian teachers, be they laymen or ecclesiastics, to hasten that 
wished for consummation, and to show that the Gospel in which they 
believe is indeed a law of liberty, the condition of the highest form of 
government, and as fraternal as it is just. 

Dr. Barry’s paper was supplemented by two others on different 
phases of the question of the “Rights of Labor” and the “Duties of 
Capital” by Edward Osgood Brown and John Gibbons, both well 
known Chicago attorneys. 

“Poverty, the Cause and the Remedy,” enlisted thoughtful papers 
from Thomas Dwight, M. D., of Boston, and M. T. Elder, of New 
Orleans. Dr. Dwight’s paper was a strong presentation of the in¬ 
creasing evil of pauperism, and in it the writer sought to solve the 
problem—how to meet and remedy the need; he said: 

As rational beings, undertaking a serious work, it is for us first 
deliberately to apply our reason to the matter, to study it as we should 
study any commercial enterprise in which we were about to embark, 
any scientific question which we hoped to solve. Instinctive charity 
‘s good. We have a kindly feeling for Goldsmith’s village preacher 
in his dealings with the poor: 

‘Careless their merits or their faults to scan 
His pity gave ere charity began;’ 

but charity guided by reason is something higher. 

“ Pauperism and poverty are not the same. Every poor man is not 
a pauper. The pauper is one who habitually lives in a state of destitu¬ 
tion, without recognized means of support, without purpose or hope of 
bettering his condition. Of course there are paupers of all grades. 
Of course this species is not always easily recognized. There are 
transitional forms. The poor man, falling under discouragement, is 
not far removed from the pauper who, as yet is not quite hopeless. At 
the other extreme the pilfering pauper merges by degrees into the 
habitual criminal. I should hesitate to class as paupers those who 
near the close of an industrious life fall into destitution. But in spite 
of uncommon instances the pauper is, on the whole, a fairly distinct 
type. 

The pauper is essentially a degraded type. If the degradation 
could be stopped the type would die out. It is far easier to save a 
man, still more to save a child from becoming a pauper than to reform 
the deformed individual. We must, therefore, consider both preven¬ 
tion and cure. 

32 



Most Rev. P. A. Feehan, Archbishop of Chicago. 




the religions of the world. 


499 


“The Independence of the Holy See,” by Hon. Martin F. Morris, 
of Washington, was an able paper: He said: It is very true, how¬ 

ever, that to the pontificate of Hildebrand of Sienna or Pope Gregory 
VII., we are to refer the formal establishment of the temporal power of 
the popes, inasmuch as to that time we are to refer the culmination of 
the feudal system in Europe and the first great victory of Christian 
civilization over it under the auspices of the Roman pontiffs. The 
contest between feudalism and civilization, beginning with the over¬ 
throw of the Roman empire of the West, A. D. 472, was a long and 
bitter one. It had lasted over a thousand years when the discovery of 
America enabled the world to insure the ultimate overthrow of the 
system. 

The feudal system was at its height when Hildebrand became 
pope in A. D. 1073. Henry IV., of the house of Franconia, an able and 
unprincipled man, was then emperor of Germany (A. D. 1056-1106), 
and as such the virtual head of the system. A violent contest broke 
out between the pope and the emperor. Henry sought to determine 
it by an appeal to the brute force of arms. He crossed the Alps, in¬ 
vaded Italy and marched upon Rome with a view of deposing the pope 
and procuring the election of a pontiff more in accord with his wishes. 
Suddenly, Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, appeared in arms against him 
and resisted his advance. Robert Guiscard hastened from Naples with 
his Normans to protect the city of Rome. Europe was aroused to a 
sense of danger. Rebellions broke out in Germany itself. Henry’s 
army melted away. Matilda skillfully foiled all his movements, and 
the discomfited and baffled monarch at last was compelled to come to 
terms with the pontiff. In their famous interview at the Castle of 
Canossa, A. D. 1079, the independence of the church from feudal 
restraint and the triumph of Christian civilization over feudal barbarism 
were definitely secured. 

No dispassionate and impartial student of history can now fail to 
recognize the benefit that accrued to our civilization from the exist¬ 
ence of the papacy. It was the papacy and the papacy alone that 
saved Europe from the grinding despotism of the feudal system. From 
the brigandage and licentiousness which that system was so well cal¬ 
culated to perpetuate, humanity found its only refuge in the power 
that was represented by the papacy. The independence of the pa¬ 
pacy secured the independence of the church and the ultimate tri¬ 
umph of all that the church represented and was to Europe—religion, 
morality, science, literature, female virtue and the sanctity of the 
home. 

He concludes: Rome was not necessary for the united Italy. 
Rome has become the capital of the world; we would not have it dis¬ 
graced into becoming the capital of a petty European monarchy, 
Rome has not now, even if it ever had, any strategic, political or com¬ 
mercial value as the capital of an Italian monarchy or of an Italian 
republic, or of an Italian confederation of any kind. Italy would be 
as strong without it as with it; stronger, indeed, without it, because 


♦ 


500 THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

there would then no longer be the friction of the religious sentiment 
that must continue to struggle against the existing conditions, and 
that must necessarily succeed sooner or later in modifying those con¬ 
ditions. Rome should be a great free city, the great free city of the 
world, the holy city and the religious capital of all the nations—not a 
mere competitor of London or Berlin or Vienna, but once again the 
city of the soul. The world will be the gainer by securing anew the 
independence of the Holy See. 



XIX. 

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 




The Episcopal Church. 

Extracts from a paper by a layman of the Diocese of Chicago. 


N polity and doctrine the Episcopal Church 
in the United States is identical with that 
of the Church of England, excepting, fortu¬ 
nately for itself, it is not a state church, and 
so not subject to having its dignitaries ap¬ 
pointed by men who may not have its welfare 
at heart. 

The term Episcopalian is applied to a per¬ 
son who considers that Episcopacy is the one 
divinely appointed government in the Chris¬ 
tian church ; a person who belongs to a church 
having bishops as its high ecclesiastical offi¬ 
cers. In this sense, however, the members of 
the Roman, Greek and English churches are 
Episcopalians. The historians of the Church 
'of England claim for it an ancient origin, 
dating back to apostolic times, many believ¬ 
ing that it was founded by St. Paul himself. Its history is divided 
into several distinct epochs, as follows: 

I. The period when the earliest known inhabitants were flourish¬ 
ing under Roman rule as Christians. 

II. The period when the heathen Anglo-Saxon and Danish tribes 
supplanted them in the eastern parts of the island, and in turn received 
the faith. 

III. The mediaeval period, when the land was ruled by the Norman 
and Plantagenet kings, and the church was more or less subject to papal 
influence. 

IV. The period commonly known as “The Reformation,” under 
the Tudor dynasty, during which the church resumed its ancient 
independence. 

V. The troublous times of the Stuarts, when Puritanism threatened 
to overwhelm the old church, and so on to the revolution of 1688. 

VI. Since the revolution of 1688, during which period the church 
has enjoyed comparative peace. 

Throughout all these periods — some eighteen hundred years 
in all —can be traced the Episcopal form of government, claiming 

503 






Rt. Rev. Wm. E. McLaren, Bishop of Chicago 








THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


505 


descent from the apostolic church. Also, with equal clearness, can 
be traced a similar antiquity and continuity of doctrine, by means 
of liturgies in constant use. Only in minor points of discipline and 
ceremonial has the church in Britain materially differed from the 
rest of Christendom, such differences being caused by varying needs, 
consequent upon the civil changes the land has passed through when 
new races of men found a home there and changed the condition and 
character of the inhabitants. 

Previous to the American Revolution the colonies were a mission¬ 
ary jurisdiction subject to the Bishop of London. During the Revolu¬ 
tion the majority of the clergy and laity espoused the patriot cause, 
furnishing many of its most illustrious leaders. Immediately after the 
close of the struggle for liberty the organization of the church was 
completed in the United States by the consecration of Bishop Seabury 
of Connecticut by the Scottish bishops in 1784, and of Bishops White, 
of Pennsylvania, and Provost, of New York, in 1787, and Bishop Mad¬ 
ison of Virginia, in 1790, by the English bishops. The church in the 
United States thus gets its succession through both the Scottish and 
the English churches in unbroken continuity. 

The belief of the church is contained in the Apostles’ and Nicene 
Creeds, to which the large majority of orthodox Christians give as¬ 
sent. Baptism is considered as the doorway to church membership; 
in the baptismal office the candidate is asked only to acknowledge his 
faith as contained in the Apostles’ Creed. 

_ i 

The subject of Christian unity having been much discussed during 
recent years, the House of Bishops, in general convention assembled, 
in 1886, issued a pastoral letter setting forth those things which were 
considered by the church as essentials, and as offering a basis for 
Christian union. 

These were: 

I. The Bible as the inspired word of God. 

II. The Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds. 

III. The two sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. 

IV. The historic Episcopate, or government by bishops, this be¬ 
ing regarded more as an historical fact than as a doctrine. 

This declaration was afterward affirmed by the Pan-Anglican, or 
Lambeth Conference, which was attended by delegates from all An¬ 
glican churches. 

While the church differs from other religious bodies in many re¬ 
spects, the four articles named above are the ones regarded as essen¬ 
tials and at least the first three are accepted by the large majority of 
Christian people. 

The Episcopal Church was thus the first Christian body to issue an 
authoritative declaration on the subject of Christian unity and to show 
that it was willing to make many concessions to achieve this end. 

On account of the great liberty of private opinion allowed to both 
clergy and laity, many schools of thought exist within the church, 
showing the possibilities of Christian unity. These schools are the 
Catholic, the High Church, the Low Church and the Broad Church, 


506 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


with intermediate shades. In a few of the churches of the Catholic 
party will be found the High Mass, with ceremonies as elaborate as in 
the Roman Church, while going to the other extreme the Church Army 
holds street services approximating those of the Salvation Army (but 
with drum, etc., left out). The great majority of churchmen, however, 
are conservative, going to neither extreme, but adhering tenaciously 
to the prayer-book. 

The following are regarded as non-essential, but desirable customs 
of the church: 

i. The observance of the Christian year, such as Advent, Christ¬ 
mas and Easter. 2d. The use of a ritual for all public services in 
which both the clergy and laity take part. These services are con¬ 
tained in the Book of Common Prayer, so called on account of its being 
intended for public use. 3d. The wearing of vestments during divine 
service by the clergy. 

In the period immediately following the Revolution, the growth 
of the church in the United States was very slow. Thirty years after 
the consecration of the first American bishop it was estimated that 
there were only about 200 clergy, and not more than 6,000 communi¬ 
cants. In the last fifty years the growth has been very rapid. In 1895 
there were 74 bishops, 4,487 other clergy, 6,026 parishes and missions, 
and 614,136 communicants, besides a large number of nominal adher¬ 
ents not counted as communicants. The contributions for 1895 
amounted to $13,437,183.16. 

In the Church of England at present there are two archbishops 
and 29 bishops, both of the former and 24 of the latter having seats in 
the House of Lords; subordinate to these are 30 deans, 82 archdea¬ 
cons, 613 rural deans, and about 13,500 beneficed clergy, the whole 
clerical staff of all grades being about 23,000. Including infants, it is 
believed to have above 13,000,000 adherents in England and Wales. 

By many the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are erroneously 
supposed to be the creed of the Episcopal Church. The Thirty-Nine 
Articles were never intended to be regarded as a creed, but simply as 
a concordat to reconcile opposing schools of the sixteenth century. 
They are as follows: 


THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 

I.—There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or 
passions; of infinite power, wisdom and goodness; the Maker and preserver of all 
things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three per¬ 
sons of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

IL—The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the 
Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s 
nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her substance; so that two whole and 
perfect natures—that is to say, the Godhead and manhood—were joined together in 
one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ very God and very man; who 
truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to 
be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. 

HI.—As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also it is to be believed, that He 
went down into Hell. 

IV—Christ did truly rise again from death, and took again His body, with flesh, 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


507 


bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s'nature, wherewith He 
ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth, until He return to judge all men at the last 
day. 

^ The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one sub¬ 
stance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. 

"V I-—Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: So that what¬ 
soever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any 
man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or nec¬ 
essary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture, we do understand those 
canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any 
doubt in the Church. 

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the 
First Book of Samuel, the Second Book of Samuel, the First Book of Kings, the 
Second Book of Kings, the First Book of Chronicles, the Second Book of Chronicles, 
the First Book of Esdras, the Second Book of Esdras, the Book of Esther, the 
Book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or Preacher, Cantica or Songs of 
Solomon, Four Prophets the greater, Twelve Prophets the less. 

And the other books, as Hierome saith, the church doth read for example of 
life and instruction of manners, but yet doth it not apply them to establish any 
doctrine: such are these following: 

The Third Book of Esdras, the Fourth Book of Esdras, the Book of Tobias, the 
Book of Judith, the rest of the Book of Esther, the Book of Wisdom, Jesus the Son 
of Sirach, Baruch the Prophet, the Song of the Three Children, the Story of Sus¬ 
anna, of Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, the First Book of Maccabees, 
the Second Book of Maccabees. 

All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we 
do receive, and account them canonical. 

VII.—The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the New and 
Old Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only 
mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore they are 
not to be heard, which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory prom¬ 
ises. Although the law given from God to Moses, as touching ceremonies and 
rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the civil precepis thereof ought of necessity to 
be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatso¬ 
ever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral. 

.VIII.—The Nicene Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’ 
Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed; for they maybe proved by 
most certain warrants of Holy Scripture. 

IX. —Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam—as the Pelagians do 
vainly talk—but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that 
naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone 
from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the 
flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore, in every person born into 
this world it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature 
doth remain—yea, in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called 
in Greek phro7iema sarkos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, 
some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. 
And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet 
the Apostle doth confess that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin. 

X. —The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn 
and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and call¬ 
ing upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and 
acceptable to God, without the grace of God, by Christ, preventing us, that we may 
have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. 

XI—We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and 
Savior Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, 
that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of 
comfort; as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification. ■ 

XII.—Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justi¬ 
fication, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God s judgment; yet 
are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out, necessarily, of. 


508 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


a true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently 
known, as a tree discerned by the fruit. 

XIII. —Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of the Spirit, 
are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; 
neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or, as the school authors say, 
deserve grace of congruity; yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath 
willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature 
of sin. 

XIV. —Voluntary works besides, over and above God’s commandments, which 
they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. 
For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they 
are bound to do, but that they do more for His sake than of bounden duty is required; 
whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye hath done all that are commanded to you, say, 
We are unprofitable servants. 

XV. —Christ, in the truth of our nature, was made like unto us in all things, sin 
only except; from which He was clearly void, both in His flesh and in His spirit. 
He came to be the lamb without spot, who,by sacrifice of Himself once made,should 
take away the sins of the world; and sin, as St. John saith, was not in Him. But all 
we the rest, although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; 
and, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

XVI. —Not every deadly sin, willingly committed after baptism, is sin against 
the Holy Ghost and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be 
denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After we have received the Holy 
Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin; and by the grace of God 
we may arise again, and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, 
which say, they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of for¬ 
giveness to such as truly repent. 

XVII. —Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before 
the foundations of the world were laid, He hath constantly decreed by His counsel, 
secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen in 
Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as ves¬ 
sels made to honor. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit 
of God, be called, according to God’s purpose, by His Spirit working in due season: 
They through grace obey the calling: They be justified freely: They be made sons 
of God by adoption: They be made like the image of His only begotten Son Jesus 
Christ: They walk religiously in good works: and, at length, by God’s mercy, they 
attain to everlasting felicity. 

As the godly consideration of predestination and our election in Christ is full of 
sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in them¬ 
selves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh and their 
earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things; as well 
because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be 
enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love toward God; so, 
for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually 
before their eyes the sentence of God’s predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, 
whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of 
most unclean lying, no less perilous than desperation. 

Furthermore, we must receive God’s promises in such wise as they be generally 
set forth to us in Holy Scripture; and in our doings that will of God is to be followed, 
which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God. 

XVIII.—They also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man 
shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame 
his life according to that law and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set 
out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved. 

XIX.—The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the 
which the true word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered 
according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to 
the same. 

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch have erred, so also the 
Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but 
also in matters of faith. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


509 


XX. The church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in 
controveisies of faith: And yet it is not lawful for the church to ordain anything 
that is contrary to Gods Word written; neither may it so expound one place of 
Scripture that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the church be a 
witness ana a keeper of Holy Writ, yet as it ought not to decree anything against 
the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce anything to be believed for 
necessity of salvation. 

(The twenty-first article is omitted because partly of a local and civil nature, 
and is provided for in remaining parts in other articles.) 

XXII.—The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshiping, and 
adoration, as well of images as of reliques, and also invocation of saints, is a fond 
thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather re¬ 
pugnant to the Word of God. 

XXIII.—It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public 
preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully 
called and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called 
and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority 
given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord’s vine¬ 
yard. 

XXIV. —It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of 
the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the sacra¬ 
ments, in a tongue not understood by the people. 

XXV. —Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian 
men’s profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of 
grace and God’s good-will toward us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and 
doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him. 

There are two sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the gospel, that is to 
say, baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. 

Those five, commonly called sacraments, that is to say, confirmation, penance, 
orders, matrimony and extreme unction, are not to be counted for sacraments of 
the gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the apostles, 
partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of 
sacraments with baptism and the Lord’s Supper, for that they have not any visible 
sign or ceremony ordained of God. 

The sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried 
about, but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the 
same, they have a wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them un¬ 
worthily, purchase to themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith. 

XXVI. —Although in the visible church the evil be ever mingled with the good, 
and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the Word and sac¬ 
raments, yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in Christ’s, 
and do minister by His commission and authority, we may use their ministry, both in 
hearing the Word of God, and in the receiving of the sacraments. Neither is the 
effect of Christ’s ordinance taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God’s 
gifts diminished from such as, by faith, and rightly, do receive the sacraments min¬ 
istered unto them; which be effectual, because of Christ’s institution and promise, 
although they be ministered by evil men. 

Nevertheless, it appertained to the discipline of the church that inquiry be 
made of evil ministers, and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of 
their offenses; and finally, being found guilty, by just judgment be deposed. 

XXVII.—Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference, 
whereby Christian nen are discerned from others that be not christened, but it is 
also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that 
receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church; the promises of the forgiveness 
of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly 
signed and sealed; faith is confirmed and grace increased by virtue of prayer unto 
God. The baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the church as 

most agreeable with the institution of Christ. 

XXVIII.—The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians 
ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather it is a sacrament of our 
redemption by Christ’s death; insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with 






Gethsemane. 


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THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


511 


faith, receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of 
Christ; and likewise, the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. 

Transubstantiation—or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the 
Supper of the Lord—cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain 
words ot Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion 
to many superstitions. 

The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the supper, only after an 
heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means, whereby the body of Christ is re¬ 
ceived and eaten in the supper, is faith. 

The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, 
carried about, lifted up, or worshiped. 

XXIX. The wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do 
carnally and visibly press with their teeth, as St. Augustine saith, the sacrament of 
the body and blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ, but rather, 
to their condemnation, do eat and drink the sign or sacrament of so great a thing. 

XXX. —The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay-people, for both the 
parts of the Lord’s sacrament, by Christ’s ordinance and commandment, ought to be 
ministered to all Christian men alike. 

XXXI. —The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propi¬ 
tiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; 
and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices 
of Masses, in the which it was commonly said that the priest did offer Christ for 
the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables 
and dangerous deceits. 

XXXII.—Bishops, priests and deacons are not commanded by God’s law either 
to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: Therefore it is lawful 
for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they 
shall judge the same to serve better to godliness. 

XXXIII.—That person, which by open denunciation of the church is rightly cut 
off from the unity of the church and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole 
multitude of the faithful, as an heathen or publican, until he be openly reconciled 
by penance and received into the church by a judge that hath authority thereunto. 

XXXIV.—It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places 
one, or utterly like, for at all times they have been diverse, and may be changed 
according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be 
ordained against God’s Word. Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly 
and purposely doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the church, which 
be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common 
authority, ought to be rebuked openly—that others may fear to do the like—as he 
that offendeth against the common order of the church, and hurteth the authority of 
the magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren. 

Every particular or national church hath authority to ordain, change and abolish 
ceremonies or rites of the church, ordained only by man’s authority, so thatall things 
be done to edifying. 

XXXV.—The Second Book of Homilies, the several titles whereof we have 
joined under this article, doth contain a godly and wholesome doctrine, and neces¬ 
sary for these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies, which were set forth in the 
time of Edward the Sixth; and therefore we judge them to be read in churches by 
the ministers diligently and distinctly, that they may be understood by the people. 

Of Names of the Homilies.—1, Of the Right Use of the Church; 2, Against 
Peril of Idolatry; 3, Of Repairing and Keeping Clean of Churches; 4, Of Good Works, 
first of Fasting; 5, Against Gluttony and Drunkenness; 6, Against Excess of Apparel; 
7, Of Prayer; 8, Of the Place and Time of Prayer; 9, That Common Prayer and Sac¬ 
raments ought to be Administered in a Known Tongue; 10, Of the Reverent Estima¬ 
tion of God’s Word; 11, Of Alms-doing; 12, Of the Nativity of Christ; 13, Of the 
Passion of Christ; 14, Of the Resurrection of Christ; 15, Of the Worthy Receiving of 
the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; 16, Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost; 
17, For the Rogation Days; 18, Of the State of Matrimony; 19, Of Repentance; 
20, Against Idleness; 21, Against Rebellion. 

XXXVI.—The book of Consecrating of Bishops and Ordering of Priests and 
Deacons, as set forth by the General Convention of this Church in 1792, doth contain 


512 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


all thing? necessary to such Consecrating and Ordering. Neither hath it anything 
that of itself is superstitious or ungodly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated 
and ordered according to such form, we decree all such to be rightfully, orderly, and 
lawfully consecrated and ordered. 

XXXVII.—The power of the civil magistrate extendeth to all men, as well 
clergy as laity, in all things temporal; but hath no authority in things purely spiritual. 
Aud we hold it to be the duty of all men who are professors of the gospel, to pay 
respectful obedience to the civil authority, regularly and legitimately constituted. 

XXXVIII.—The riches and goods of Christians are not common, as touching 
the right, title, and possession of the same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast. 
Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give 
alms to the poor, according to his ability. 

XXXIX.—As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men 
by our Lord Jesus Christ, and lames His apostle; so we judge that Christian religion 
doth not prohibit but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a 
c;uise of faith and charity; so it be done, according to the prophet’s teaching, in 
justice, judgment, and truth. 








A 



XX. 

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 


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The Lutherans 



NAME said to have been first applied in con¬ 
tempt by Dr. Eck, or Eckius, to the follow¬ 
ers of Martin Luther, Ludir, or Lother. 
Luther was born at Eisleben, in Saxony, six¬ 
teen miles northwest of Halle, his father, 
Hans Luther, being a miner and worker in 
metals. Martin lost an intimate companion 
by sudden death in 1505; he was deeply 
impressed with the importance of religion, 
and became an Augustine eremite, at Erfurth. 
In 1508 he was made Professor of Philoso¬ 
phy in the University of Wittenberg, recently 
founded by the Elector, Frederick the Wise, and 
which ultimately was incorporated in 1817 with that 
of Halle. In 1510 he had to visit Rome on the 
business of his order. In 1512 he became Doctor of 
Divinity. In 1517, Pope Leo X. having followed the 
example of his predecessor in sanctioning the sale of 
indulgences with the view of raising money nominally for the rebuild¬ 
ing of St. Peter’s, Rome, and for supporting a league of the Christian 
powers against the Turks, Luther came into collision with Tetzel, the 
agent for the traffic at Wittenberg and the adjacent regions. On 
October 31, 1517, a day so important that with it the middle ages are 
generally held to have closed and modern times begun, he affixed 
ninety-five theses against indulgences to the cathedral church of Wit¬ 
tenberg. At first Luther’s variance was only with the subordinate 
agents, but gradually it passed into hostility to Leo, and when, in 
reply to a bull issued against him on June 15, 1520, he, on December 
10, burnt the papal bull with the decretals and canons, his breach with 
the papacy was complete. More than one previous effort had been 
made to reconcile him to the church, but in vain, and finally Charles 
V. was exhorted to make an example of him as an obstinate heretic. 
He was therefore summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms, and 
did so on April 17, 1521. When in the face of the assembled digni¬ 
taries, civil and ecclesiastical, of the empire, he refused to retract his 
views unless first convinced that they were erroneous, it was the 
sublimest moment in his history. On returning from the Diet his friends 
carried him off and concealed him for some months in the Castle of 


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Chancel and Altar of Modern Lutheran Church, 


Denmark. 


















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


517 


Wartburg, on a mountain near Eisenach. In 1522 he ventured to 
return to Wittenberg to restrain some of his more extreme followers. 
Believing that monastic vows should not be imposed, and were not 
binding, he, in 1524, threw off his monastic dress, and next year, 
though pledged in his youth to celibacy, married, some of his follow¬ 
ers following his example. Notwithstanding all the perils so long 
confronting him, he died at Eisleben in 1546, not by violence but by 
disease. 

From the time that Luther broke with Catholicism he began to 
think out a scheme of doctrine and discipline for his followers. The 
demands of both friends and opponents compelled Luther, his amia¬ 
ble coadjutor, Melanchthon, and others in 1530 to formulate its state¬ 
ments. (Augsburg Confession.) A year previously the Lutherans, 
protesting against the decisions of the second Diet of Spires, for 
the first time were called Protestants. 

The Elector, John of Saxony, succeeding his brother, Frederick 
the Wise, organized Lutheran Churches throughout his dominions. 
Hitherto there had been considerable unity between all the Teutonic 
opponents of the Papacy, but differences of opinion which arose 
between Luther and Carlstadt at Wittenberg led to alienation of feel¬ 
ing between them, and then to a schism between the German and Swiss 
churches. Both rejected Transubstantiation, but Luther and his fol¬ 
lowers formulated the view called Consubstantiation, which the Zwin- 
glians rejected. From the commencement of controversy on the sub¬ 
ject, in 1524, the term Lutherans became confined to the former. In 
1521 Lutheranism spread to Denmark under the auspices of the king, 
Christian II.; in 1523 Olaus Petri, aided by King Gustavus Vasa, intro¬ 
duced it into Sweden. With the exception of some parts of Upper 
Germany, the continental sections of the Teutonic race, whether Ger¬ 
man or Scandinavian, have remained Lutheran. About the middle of 
the eighteenth century Rationalism became a potent factor in the life 
of the Lutheran as of other continental churches .—American E.?icyclo- 
pcedic Dictionary . 

Protestants.—The name given to those princes and others who, on 
April 19, 1529, at the second Diet of Spires, protested against the decis¬ 
ion of the majority, that the permission given three years before to 
every prince to regulate religious matters in his dominions till the 
meeting of a general council should be revoked, and that no change 
should be made till the council met. Besides protesting, they appealed 
to the emperor and to the future council. The diet rejecting their 
protest, they presented a more extended one next day. Those first 
Protestants were John, Elector of Saxony; the Margrave George of 
Brandenburg, Onolzbach, and Culmback;the Dukes Ernest and Francis 
of Luneberg; the Landgrave Philip of Hesse; Wolfgang, Prince of 
Anhalt, and the representatives of the imperial cities of Strasburg, Ulm, 
Nuremberg, Constance, Reutlingen, Windsheim, Memmingen, Lindau, 
Kempten, Heilbron, Isny, Weissenburg, Nordlingen, and St. Gall. 
The name is now extended to all persons and churches holding the 
doctrines of the Reformation and rejecting Papal authority. 


518 


THE RELIGIONS OF I HE WORLD. 


Consubstantiation.—The Lutherans hold to the doctrine that in 
the Holy Eucharist the real body and blood of Christ are present along 
with the bread and wine. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is that 
when the words of consecration are pronounced by the priest the bread 
and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, and con¬ 
sequently cease to exist in their original form. The doctrine of Con- 
substantiation, on the contrary, is that after consecration they continue 
to exist in their original form, but that along with them the actual body 
and blood of Christ exist and are partaken of by the communicants. 

It is believed that the first to promulgate the doctrine of Consub¬ 
stantiation was John, surnamed Pungens Asinus, a doctor of Paris, at 
the end of the thirteenth century. Luther either adopted or thought 
it out anew for himself, and it will forever be identified with his name. 
It w T as adopted also by Melanchthon and most of the other North Ger¬ 
man reformers, except Carlstadt, and became the creed of the Lu¬ 
theran Church. It is taught in the tenth article of the Augsburg Confes¬ 
sion, which asserts that the real body and blood of Christ are truly 
present in the Eucharist, under the elements of the bread and wine, 
and are distributed and received. Ulrich Zwingle, and subsequently 
Calvin, with most of the other Swiss and South German reformers, on 
the contrary, considered that the sacramental elements were merely 
symbolic of the body and blood of Christ, which were not corporeally 
present in the Eucharist. Bitterness of feeling arose between the 
combatants on the respective sides, and efforts to reconcile them failed. 
The doctrine of Consubstantiation is still held as a fundamental tenet 
by the Lutheran Churches. 

The Augsburg Confession is the credal basis of Lutheranism 
adopted in 1530. It recites, in substance: 

That there is one divine essence, which is called, and is God, 
eternal, incorporeal, indivisible, infinite in power, wisdom, and good¬ 
ness; and yet that there are three persons who are of the same essence 
and power, and are co-eternal; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

That the Word, that is the Son of God, assumed human nature in 
the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that the two natures, human 
and divine, inseparably united into one person, constitute one Christ, 
who is true God and man. 

That since the fall of Adam all men, who are naturally engendered, 
are born with a depraved nature; that is, without the fear of God, or 
confidence toward Him, but with sinful propensities. 

That the Son of God truly suffered, was crucified, died and was 
buried, that He might reconcile the Father to us, and be a sacrifice not 
only for original sin, but also for all the actual sins of men. That He 
also sanctifies those who believe in Him by sending into their hearts 
the Holy Spirit, who governs, consoles, quickens and defends them 
against the devil and the power of sin. 

That men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, 
merit or works; but that they are justified gratuitously, for Christ’s 
sake, through faith. 

That this faith must bring forth good fruits; and that it is our duty 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


519 


to perform those good works which God commanded, because He has 

enjoined them, and not in the expectation of thereby meriting justifi¬ 
cation before him. 

That in order that we may obtain this faith the ministerial office 
has been instituted, whose members are to preach the Gospel and 
administer the sacraments (viz., Baptism and the Lord’s Supper). For 
through the instrumentality of the word and sacraments as means of 
grace, the Holy Spirit is given, who in his own time and place produces 
faith in those who hear the Gospel message, viz., that God, for Christ’s 
sake, and not on account of any merit in us, justifies those who believe 
in Christ. 

That at the end of the world Christ will appear for judgment; 
that He will raise all the dead; that He will give to the pious and elect 
eternal life and endless joys, but will condemn wicked men and devils 
to be punished without end. 

Harmony Society.—Lutheran communists, who started in 1805, 
under George Rapp, in Economy, Pa. They hold all things in 
common, and accept the Lutheran theology, but do not commune 
with the Lutherans. 

Zoarites.—Are a small obscure number of Lutherans. 

The Lutherans, in an introductory address by Rev. L. M. Heilman, 
D. D., of Chicago, expressed a special pleasure in having accepted the 
courteous invitation to participate in the world’s first great Religious 
Parliament. Their kinship with the Reformation of the Sixteenth Cent¬ 
ury influenced them in the belief that there was a peculiar propriety 
in holding such a congress by the Church of the Reformation, on soil 
discovered by Christopher Columbus. Columbus and Luther were 
contemporaries and providential co-workers, only differing in this, that 
while the one discovered a new continent the other provided for it the 
elements of liberty. When Columbus was making his famous Amer¬ 
ican voyages, which were destined to revolutionize the sciences of 
geography, commerce and civil government, Martin Luther, at Eisen¬ 
ach, Magdeburg and Erfurt, was storing his mind with that liberal 
education and with those principles of individual liberty of judgment 
which disenthralled Europe and eventually gave the land of Columbus 
its unparalleled civil liberty, and the greatest republic the world ever 
saw. When the distinguished voyager and discoverer was in chains, 
and even died in ignominy through the superstition and ingratitude of 
those who encouraged and commissioned him to his daring task, the 
celebrated Augustinian, by his personal struggles after liberty and 
peace, in his monastery, was breaking for himself and the world 
superstition’s chains forged through ages. 

The efforts of the reformer moved on by the side of and over 
methods of tyranny and persecution which crushed similar attempts. 
Within one week of the time when Mohammed’s rule overthrew the 
freedom of the Mameluke power of Egypt, Luther nailed upon the 
castle church of Wittenberg those theses, the echo of whose hammer- 
sound struck the long-silent chord of freedom in all Europe. And at 


520 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the time when such men as Francis I., Henry VIII. and Charles V. held 
the scepter of the great nations, and on the very day when Cortez 
conquered Montezuma and placed Mexico under Spanish Roman rule, 
there was enacted at Worms a scene which forever checked arrogant 
supremacy over human liberty, and which, as Carlyle said, “was the 
great point from which the whole subsequent history of civilization 
takes its rise.” These events laid the corner-stone of our civil lib¬ 
erty, which Lutherans hail as a product of their father’s principles, 
and which they, therefore, are pleased to celebrate in this Columbian 
anniversary. It was through the inspiration and universal awakening 
wrought by the Reformation principle of the inalienable right of private 
judgment, that this land of Columbus was colonized by the various 
evangelical branches of Christendom which reared this republic. 

“ Under these principles, too, a hardy conservative class of Lutheran 
citizens was created which from 1621 to the period of national in¬ 
dependence, in toil of forests, mines, fields, and in the culture of home 
and moral and spiritual character, and then on the field fighting for 
liberty’s cause by a large share of service north and south, were an 
emphatic and positive agency in securing existence and worth to our 
nation. Adding to their century and a half of virtues in the colonies, 
they have numbered in millions, at least a tenth of the American pop¬ 
ulation, and in learning, literature and popular and classic education 
have always had “brightest lights” as well as they have borne the bur¬ 
den of honest industry and homely occupation. Whole companies, 
and regiments even, of their people have shared the rigors as also the 
glory of war for their American nation. It was principally they who 
performed the “brilliant feat” at Trenton, across the Delaware, and at 
their feet the arms of Cornwallis at Yorktown were laid down. Do, 
then, Lutherans believe too much when they say theit the Columbian 
discovery has reached its present renowned results, so worthy of our 
gigantic Exposition, through the movements of the Reformation and 
through no small aid rendered by the immediate sons of the Reforma¬ 
tion? 

“ The Place of the Lutheran Church in History” was discussed by 
Prof. E. J. Wolf, D. D., of Gettysburg, Pa. He maintained that with 
the Lutheran Church as the first army that waged successful war 
with Rome, modern history had its birth. The papacy had been as¬ 
sailed again and again only to emerge from every contest mightier 
and prouder and wickeder than before, its foes crushed beneath an 
iron heel, its subjects, including kings and bishops as well as the 
masses, prostrate and helpless at its feet. There never was such a 
despotism as that of the Roman hierarchy. There never was an earthly 
power so absolute, so near omnipotent. It was the supreme tem¬ 
poral and spiritual authority; it held in subjection men’s bodies and 
their souls; it was sovereign over reason and over conscience; it held 
in subjection the most powerful monarch as well as the slave, divested 
of every vestige of freedom. * * * At last its power is shaken 

and shattered from one end of Europe to the other; its dominion is 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


521 


torn to pieces; its rule is repudiated and its fulminations are answered 
with defiance, and its yoke falls from the neck of millions. 

How was this revolution of the Sixteenth Century effected, and 
how was the collossal power of Rome broken? A company of earnest 
believers had experienced that salvation is a free gift, that Christ 
atoned for all actual sins of men, and that the sinner is justified by 
faith alone. They found this to be the doctrine of Scripture, and then 
began to preach it and teach it, sing it and live it everywhere. The 
result was the vanishing of spiritual darkness before the rising 
sun. 

4/ >,ti* * ^1/ 

/p 9R /|» 

Other communions in opposition to Rome came into being, and 
with largely the same ideas, but not simultaneously. No other church 
can claim to be a twin sister to the Lutheran. Zwingli was indeed at 
work as early as Luther, denouncing some crying corruptions, but the 
historian can easily premise what would have become of his religio- 
political reforms had it not been for the impulse which came from 
Wittenberg. 

It was two years after the presentation of the Augsburg confes¬ 
sion when Calvin espoused the principles of the Reformation, and 
fifteen years, therefore, after posting the ninety-five theses. 

The Lutheran Confession says Doctor Schaff ‘struck the keynote 
to the other evangelical confessions/ 

This church is the great mediating power between ancient and 
modern Christianity. She struck her roots deep into the past and 
enriched her strength by the soil of the church in every age between 
Luther’s and that of the apostles. The scholastic development of 
doctrine, so far as it did not turn away from the Gospel; the incom¬ 
parable store of chants and creeds and prayers and hymns, which the 
faith and piety of centuries had accumulated, eliminating only what 
was impure—all these the Lutheran church sought to preserve and 
retain as far as practicable. Her liturgy is substantially the ‘ outline 
and structure of the service of the western church for a thousand 
years/ Her conservatism has made the Lutheran church the bulwark 
of civil liberty. She broke the spell of Rome, and she wrought on the 
conscience of rulers in behalf of the rights and needs of their subjects. 
She established popular education, she inculcated individual responsi¬ 
bility, she taught men they were God’s children, she inspired men to 
appeal from the earthly oppressor to the heavenly avenger, and so 
rulers learned the power of their subjects and reckoned not only with 
them, but with the One whose authority was feared more than their 
own. ’ The Lutheran church thus stands in history as the upholder and 
guardian of civil order, and is the inspirer of those political ideas which 
secure human rights under every form of civil polity. 

Higher Criticism and the Lutheran Church was discussed by 
Prof. S. F. Breckenridge, D. D., Springfield, Ohio. The Lutheran 
church regards the Bible or, as her theologians love to name it, 


522 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the Word of God, as the final arbiter of all questions of faith and 
morals. While they recognized a human element in the sacred 
writings and the necessary imperfections due to it, they maintained 
that they are a revelation from God through the instrumentality 
of men who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The con¬ 
fessions of the Lutheran church upon the authority of the Scriptures 
declare, they ‘alone will remain as the sole judge, rule and standard,’ 
according to which, as the only touchstone, all doctrines shall and 
must be understood and judged whether they be good or evil, 
right or wrong. Although the Lutheran church, especially in Ger¬ 
many, suffered much from the rationalistic times of Semler to 
those of Strauss and F. C. Baur, the old faith survives in the 
hearts and lives of the mass of the people and their pastors. The 
uniform doctrine of Lutheran professors in America has been that the 
Scriptures are the Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith 
and morals. The higher critics hold that the story of creation as 
related in Genesis is without historical foundation. It is the production 
in a monotheistic setting of an Assyro-Babylonian myth to account 
for the visible universe. The story of paradise and the fall of man has 
a like origin, and was invented to account for the existence of evil. 
The story of the tower of Babel is an attempt to account in a “ pic¬ 
torial manner for the diversity of speech.” Upon this method nearly 
all history can be made void. The church, too, can,afford to 
wait until the critics are agreed among themselves and until their 
conclusions, which have shifted like sandy foundations, for years 
unsteady and unsettled, until they have reached a final stage, before 
Christian teachers consider a reconstruction of the accepted theology. 

“Lutherans in all Lands,” as shown by Rev. J. N. Lenker, 
have a kingdom on which the sun never sets. In Germany there 
are 16,000 ministers, 22,500 churches, 29,300,000 baptized members, 
61,000 parochial schools, and 6,731 deaconesses; in Denmark, 1,700 
ministers, 1,900 churches, 2,030,000 baptized members, 3,100 paro¬ 
chial schools, and 171 deaconesses; in Norway, 869 ministers, 960 
churches, 2,010,000 baptized members; in Sweden, 2,541 ministers, 
2,514 churches, 4,764,000 baptized members. Total in Europe, in¬ 
cluding Greece, England, Scotland, Holland, Switzerland, and others, 
24,416 ministers, 32,897 churches, 45,370,308 baptized members, 89,764 
parochial schools, 7,702 deaconesses. In Asia there are 252 minis¬ 
ters, 169 churches, 114,350 baptized members, 756 parochial schools 
and 42 deaconesses; in Africa, 328 ministers, 256 churches, 100,863 
baptized members, 714 parochial schools and 44 deaconesses; in 
Gceanica, 168 ministers, 410 churches, 137,294 members and 180 
schools; in South America, 62 ministers, 90 churches, 115,545 mem¬ 
bers, 90 schools; in Greenland, United States, Canada and the West 
Indies, 5,120 ministers, 9,135 churches, 7,012,500 members, 2,513 
schools and 65 deaconesses. The grand total in the world shows 
30,346 ministers, 42,877 churches, 52,850,660 baptized members, 94,017 
parochial schools and 7,853 deaconesses. 


XXI. 

PRESBYTERIANISM. 


r 


The Presbyterian Church. 



ALVINISM.—The tenets of John Calvin, the 
celebrated reformer, born at Noyon, in Picardy, 
July io, 1509; died May 27, 1564. 

Sometimes the term Calvinism compre¬ 
hends his views regarding both theological 
doctrine and ecclesiastical polity; at others it 
is limited to the former, and specially to his 
views on the doctrines of grace. These are 
sometimes called the five points of Calvinism, 
or, more briefly, the five points; but this latter 
curt appellation is not sufficiently specific, for 
the rival system of Arminianism was also pre¬ 
sented by the Remonstrants at the Synod of 
Dort in five points. Those of Calvinism are the 
following: 1. Original Sin; 2. Total Depravity; 
Election, or Predestination; 4. Effectual Call¬ 
ing; 5. Final Perseverance of the Saints. Augustine, 
bishop of Hippo, who was born in 354, and died in 
430, held theological views essentially the same as those afterwards 
promulgated by Calvin. In addition to what may be called the doc¬ 
trines of grace, Calvin held the spiritual presence of Christ in the Holy 
Eucharist, but not the doctrine of consubstantiation. He was thus 
essentially Zwinglian, and not Lutheran. Calvin’s views of Church 
government were essentially what are now called Presbyterian. He 
held also that the Church should be spiritually independent of the 
State, but was willing that the discipline of the Church should be car¬ 
ried out by the civil power. This last opinion, followed to its logical 
conclusion, involved him in heavy responsibility for the death of his 
Socinian antagonist, Servetus, the capital punishment of whom for 
alleged heresy was approved of not merely by Calvin, but by the other 
reformers, not excepting the gentle Melanchthon. No one in those 
days seems to have clearly understood religious liberty. 

The work which first made this system known to the world was 
Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion , published in 1536. In August 
of the same year he visited Geneva, and, at the earnest request of 
Farel, its leading reformer, made it his residence. In 1538 both were 
expelled from the city, when Calvin, going to Strasburg, originated 

525 




Prof. A. C. Zenos, D. D., Chicago 












THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


527 


the French church there on the model which he deemed scriptural. 
In 1541 he was invited back to Geneva, and returning to it was the 
leading spirit there till his death, in 1564. Various Protestant churches 
adopted Calvin’s theological views with his ecclesiastical polity; thus 
Knox carried "both of these to Scotland, where the first Presbyterian 
General Assembly was held in 1560. 

Bishop Burnet states that the seventeenth article of the Church of 
Pmgland is framed according to St. Augustine’s doctrine, which, as 
stated, is essentially Calvinistic. The early reformers of the English 
Church, mostly held his views of the doctrines of grace, which prevailed 
to the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Afterward they impercept¬ 
ibly declined. When the rival system of Arminius was brought to 
trial at the Synod of Dort, in Holland, in 1618, the English clerical 
representatives gave Calvinistic votes, notwithstanding which Armin- 
ianism took deep root in the English as in various other churches. 
Of the two great English revivalists of the eighteenth century, 
Whitfield was Calvinistic and Wesley Arminian. 

Presbyterians.—Are those who believe that the government of the 
church by means of presbyters is founded on and agreeable to the word 
of God. They hold that presbyter (elder) and bishop are different 
names for the same ecclesiastical functionary (cf. Actsxx., 17, 28, R. V.; 
Phil, i., 1, etc.); that, consequently, every presbyter is a bishop, and on 
a footing of equality with his other brethren in the eldership. Pres¬ 
byters are divided into two classes—teaching and ruling elders (1 Tim. 
v., 17). The former are popularly called “ministers,” the latter 
“ elders,” or “lay-elders;” but, theoretically, both hold spiritual office. 
The government is by means of four courts of judicature, rising con¬ 
secutively in dignity and authority. The lowest, called the “Session,” 
rules over the congregation in all spiritual matters; while finance, 
being deemed more secular, is relegated to deacons or managers. 
Above the Session is the Presbytery. Above this again is a Synod for 
a certain district. Highest of all is the General Assembly. The min¬ 
ister of a congregation presides ex-officio in the Session, and non-min- 
isterial elders are ineligible for the Moderatorship of the Presbytery, 
Synod and Assembly. A Presbyterian denomination stands to an 
Episcopal one nearly in the same relation as a republic to a monarchy. 
The Waldensian church was constituted on an essentially presbyterian 
model. The system was partially introduced into Switzerland in 1541, 
and its discipline was subsequently carried out by Calvin with iron 
firmness at Geneva. The first French Synod met in Paris in 1559, the 
first Dutch Synod at Dort in 1574. The Hungarian and various other 
continental Protestant churches are also Presbyterian. The system 
thoroughly rooted itself in Scotland, the first General Assembly being 
held there in 1560. 

The clergymen who had to leave the English Church in 1662, 
owing to the Act of Uniformity, were mainly Presbyterians. A num¬ 
ber of the congregations which they founded ultimately lapsed first 
into Arianism, and then into Socinianism, retaining the name Presby¬ 
terian after they had abandoned the form of government. But the 


528 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


great mass of the American and British Presbyterians are strongly 
Trinitarian. They hold the Bible to be the sole rule of belief, and the 
Confession of Faith their chief, or their only, human standard. The 
first presbytery in the United States met at Philadelphia in 1705* 
There are now powerful Presbyterian Churches in various parts of the 
world, the number of communicants in this country reaching to nearly 
a million and a half .—American Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 

Most of the divisions of Presbyterianism are based on the West¬ 
minster Confession, and all are of course Presbyterian in their form 
of government. 

The Westminster Confession.—A confession of faith drawn up by 
what was called an Assembly of Divines, but which had also some lay¬ 
men among its members, sitting by authority of the Parliament be¬ 
tween A. D. 1643 and 1647. Ninety-seven were English and nine, with 
two “scribes,” Scotch commissioners. The place of meeting was 
Henry VII.’s Chapel at Westminster. The confession of faith was 
agreed to in 1643, an d was designed to be the standard of belief for 
the whole kingdom, England as well as Scotland. In the former 
country, however, it was never cordially accepted by the nation; in the 
latter it was so received. It was ratified by the Scottish General 
Assembly on August 27, 1647, and by the Parliament of the Scottish 
kingdom on February 7, 1649, as it, was once more under William and * 
Mary on June 7, 1690. Its tenets were essentially those of the Re¬ 
formed churches in general. It is still the chief symbolic book of the 
Evangelical Presbyterian Churches throughout the world, though ex¬ 
planations or qualifications of the teaching on one or two points are 
permitted in some of the churches. 

Shorter Catechism.—A Presbyterian catechism composed under 
the direction of the Westminster Assembly. It was called Shorter to 
distinguish it from the Larger Catechism, which had been finished just 
previously. A small Committee of Assembly was appointed on 
August 5, 1647, t° prepare the Shorter Catechism. When completed 
it was presented to the British Parliament on November 26. Both 
Houses of Parliament thanked the divines who had composed it, and 
ordered six hundred copies, but requested that proofs should be 
appended. This being done, the Catechism with proofs was presented 
to Parliament on April 16, 1648, and ordered to be printed. It was 
adopted by the Scottish General Assembly on July 28, 1648, the 
decision being ratified by the Scottish Parliament on February 7, 1649. 

It is still most extensively used among English-speaking Presbyterians 
all over the world .—American Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 

The Wesminster Confession declares: 

By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some 
men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and some fore¬ 
ordained to everlasting death (iii., 3). They whom God hath accepted 
in His beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, can 
neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall 
certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved (xvii., 1). 
Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


529 


the word and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet 
they never truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved (x., 4). 
These angels and men, thus predestinated and preordained, are par¬ 
ticularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain 
and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished (iii., 4). 
Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, 
adopted, sanctified and saved, but the elect only (iii.,6). The rest of 
mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of 
His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy as He 
pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to 
pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the 
praise of His glorious justice (iii., 7). Man by his fall into a state of 
sin hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accom¬ 
panying salvation; so, as a natural man, being altogether averse from 
that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert 
himself or to prepare himself thereunto (ix., 3). As for those wicked 
and ungodly men whom God as a righteous judge for former sins doth 
blind and harden, from them He not only withholdeth His grace 
whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings 
and wrought upon in their hearts, etc. (v., 6). By this sin they (our 
first parents) fell from their original righteousness and communion 
with God, and so became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the 
faculties and parts of soul and body. They being the root of all 
mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin 
and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity descending from 
them by ordinary generation. From this original corruption, whereby 
we are utterly indisposed, disabled and made opposite to all good, and 
wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed our actual transgressions (v.,i2, 
3, 4). Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of 
the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth in its own 
nature bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the 
wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with 
all miseries—spiritual, temporal and eternal (vi.,6). Much less can 
men not professing the Christian religion be saved in any other way 
whatsoever, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to 
the light of nature, and to the law of that religion they do profess; 
and to assert and maintain that they may is very pernicious and to be 
detested (x., 4). Works done by unregenerate men, although for the 
matter of them they may be things that God commands, and of good 
use both to themselves and to others, yet because they proceed not from 
a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner according to 
the word, nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sin¬ 
ful, and cannot please God or make a man meet to receive grace from 
God. And yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing 
unto God (xvi., 7; iii., ix.; vi., 4). But the wicked who know not God, 
and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal 
torments, and be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power (xxxiii. 2). 

34 


\ 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


f* 


40 


Dutch Church.—The Church to which the majority of the people 
of Holland adhere. In the sixteenth century the ancestors of the 
present Dutch wavered for a time between the Lutheran and the 
Reformed churches. In 1571 they publicly professed their allegiance 
to the latter by embodying its doctrines in the Belgic Confession of 
Faith, published in that year. As long as they were under the sway 
of the Spaniards they, however, abstained from the use of the word 
Reformed, which had been introduced by the French, and styled 
themselves “Associates of the Augsburg Confession,” the Spaniards 
considering Lutherans more easy to govern than Calvinists. One of 
the most notable events in the history of the Dutch Church, after the 
yoke of Spain was broken, was the Synod of Dort, in 1618. James 
Arminius, Professor of Theology at Leyden, having rejected the Cal- 
vinistic tenets and adopted those which were destined to be called 
after himsef, Arminian, a synod was convened at Dort to examine and, 
if need be, condemn his views. This was done, but with little effect, 
the views of Arminius prevailing to a greater extent after than they had 
done before their condemnation. The present Dutch Church remains 
nominally Reformed, but a good deal of rationalism exists within its 
pale. Its government is Presbyterian. 

Church of Scotland.—The original Scottish Church seems to have 
been that of the Culdees, then in mediaeval times the Roman Catholic 
Church was, to a certain extent, the national church in Scotland, not 
merely as having within its pale at least by profession all the people, 
but as maintaining its independence of its powerful southern neigh¬ 
bor. The Church resisted the claims to supremacy over it put forth at 
one time by the Archbishop of York, at another by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury; and, in 1176, in self-defense cast itself into the arms of 
the Roman Pontiff. When the sixteenth century opened, the royal 
power in Scotland was weak and was jealous of, and in conflict with, a 
very powerful nobility. When the Reformation struggle began, the 
Crown remained adherent to the old faith, while the nobility tended to 
adopt the new. From the war of independence, Scotland had con¬ 
sidered it good policy to guard against any aggression on the part of 
England by a close alliance with France, and when the Reformation 
began there were actually French troops in Scotland. On these the 
Crown rested to resist the religious movement which had been begun, 
but the Protestant “ Lords of the Congregation,” who had taken up 
arms to defend their cause, applied for aid to Queen Elizabeth, who 
sent troops to aid them in expelling the French. By a treaty signed 
on the 7th of July, 1560, it was stipulated that both the French and 
the English troops should withdraw from Scotland. On the 24th 
August, of the same year, the Scottish Parliament abolished the papal 
jurisdiction, prohibited the celebration of the mass, and rescinded all 
the laws made in favor of Roman Catholicism. The reformers adopted 
what is now called Presbyterian Church government, though certain 
superintendents were appointed, with the sanction of John Knox, the 
great Scottish reformer, whose offices after a time were swept away. 
The first General Assembly was held on the 20th December, 1560. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


531 


When the victory over the Church of Rome was complete, the alliance 
between the nobility and the Protestant preachers which had effected 
the triumph, showed symptoms of dissolving, and a large section of 
the former viewed with distrust, and even active hostility, what they 
regarded as the too democratic measures which Knox aimed at carry¬ 
ing out. But one inestimable boon was gained ere they parted, the 
universal establishment of parish schools. 

The semi-republican constitution of the church, which became 
more marked after the office of superintendent had been swept away, 
and the second book of discipline published (the latter event in 1578), 
created jealousy in the minds of regents and of sovereigns, and four or 
five generations of Stuart kings put forth long and determined efforts 
to transform Presbyterian into Episcopal government. The project 
cost the lives and liberties of far more people than the short, sharp 
Reformation struggle had done, and ended at last in failure. The 
Revolution settlement of 1690 re-established Presbyterianism, and the 
General Assembly, which had been interrupted for nearly forty years, 
began again to sit and has done so annually from that time till now. 
Prior to the union with England in 1707, an Act of Security was passed, 
designed to preserve the Scotch national church from being over¬ 
thrown by southern votes. 

In 1712 an act of parliament re-introduced patronage which had 
been swept away. The operation of this enactment was one main 
cause of three secessions: that of the Secession, pre-eminently so- 
called, in 1733; the Relief in 1752; and, the greatest of all, that which 
created the Free Church in 1843. 

The Church of Scotland claims about half the people as at least 
its nominal adherents. Besides the “ General Assembly” it had in 
1881 sixteen synods, eighty-four presbyteries, 1,500 churches, includ¬ 
ing mission-rooms, and 1,660 ministers and probationers engaged in 
ministerial work. It has missions in India, Africa and elsewheie. In 
1874 the Patronage Act of 1712 was repealed, and each congregation 
now elects its own pastor. Its chief rivals in Scotland are the Free 
Church and the United Presbyterians, the latter resulting from a union 
of the old Secession and Relief Churches .—American Encyclopaedic 
Dictionary. 

In Scotland the Established Church has, with some intervals, been 
Presbyterian since the first General Assembly met in A. D. 1560. It 
is expected that when in England, the sovereign shall attend the 
Established Church, which is Episcopal, and in Scotland, as a rule, go 
to the established church of that country, which is Presbyterian. The 
Established Kirk is the national church. 

Free Church of Scotland.—The name assumed by the large num¬ 
ber of ministers and their adherents who left the Scottish establish¬ 
ment at the “ Disruption ” of May 18, 1843. They had seceded in 
vindication of what they called the “ Headship of Chiist, 1. e., to gain 
liberty to obey what they deemed the will of their Divine Loid in all 

church arrangements. , . , 

When the disruption took place, the financial difficulties which 

















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


533 


the secessionists had to face were very formidable. Wherever the 
Free Church had adherents, which was in nearly every parish, fresh 
places of worship had to be built in lieu of those lost; at least small 
stipends to be provided for the ministers whose stipends (whether 
provided by the state or their parishioners) were gone. All the Scot¬ 
tish established missionaries to the Jews or the Gentiles, having joined 
the seceding party, had to be provided for. After a certain breathing¬ 
time, theological colleges had also to be built, day schools and manses 
(in English, parsonages) provided in connection with the several 
churches. All was at last successfully accomplished, and great 
advance made, both at home and abroad. One part of the financial 
arrangements which has attracted most notice was the Sustentation 
Fund. 

United Presbyterian Church.—The third in point of magnitude 
and importance among the Presbyterian denominations in Scotland, 
the two in advance of it in point of numbers being the Established 
and the Free Churches. It was formed by the union between the 
Secession and the Relief bodies on May 13, 1847 Its tenets are 
essentially thoseof the Confession of Faith, with modifications needful 
to adapt it to the views of its ministers as to the relation of the civil 
magistrate to the church and religious toleration. Nearly all its office 
bearers are opposed to the principle of establishments, but latitude of 
belief on the subject is permitted, and a minority hold the opposite 
view. In May, 1876, the United Presbyterian Church made a friendly 
disseverance of its congregations south of the Tweed that these might 
unite with the English Presbyterian Church to constitute the Presby¬ 
terian Church of England. At the end of 1886 the United Presbyter¬ 
ian Church consisted of 32 presbyteries, 546 congregations and 82,063 
communicants and had a revenue of ^317,955 17s. ud. 

Antiburghers.—A Scottish sect which rose in 1747. A certain 
oath having been instituted in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Perth to be 
taken as a criterion of burghership, many members of the Associate 
Synod or Secession Church, considered its terms to be such that 
they could not conscientiously take it. Others declared that they 
could. The Secession in consequence split into distinct bodies— 
the “ Burghers,” who took the oath, and the “ Anti-burghers,” who re¬ 
fused it. Another schism ultimately followed, owing to the conflict 
between progressive and conservative ideas; and thus there were 
produced four distinct denominations—viz., the Old Light Burghers, 
the New Light Burghers, the Old Light Antiburghers and the New 
Light Antiburghers. Most of these are now merged in the United 
Presbyterian Church, and their old denominations are becoming 
obsolete.— ( Burton: History Scotland.') 

Relief Church, Relief Synod.—A sect which arose in Scotland 
in 1752. A minister unacceptable to the congregation having been 
presented to the parish of Inverkeithing, the presbytery of Dunferm¬ 
line hesitated to proceed with his settlement. First the commission 
of Assembly and next the Assembly itself, in which the moderate 
party were then dominant, ordered them to go forward. Six min- 


534 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


isters refused, one of whom, the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, of Carnock, 
was deposed for contumacy on May 23, 1752. He founded the first 
Relief Congregation, which on October 22, 1761, developed into the 
Relief Presbytery. Ultimately it became a synod, and on May 13, 
1847, joined the Secession Church in founding the United Presbyterian 
Church. 

Covenanters.—This church was originally formed to substitute 
Presbyterianism for Episcopacy and Catholicism, of both which it 
was an intolerant and a deadly opponent. “ The Solemn League and 
Covenant ” asked and gave no quarter or tolerance to any other form 
of faith than the most rigid Presbyterian. It really had no excuse 
for being after Presbyterianism became the state church of Scotland. 

The Disruption of the Church of Scotland.— On May 27, 1834, 
the church, on the motion of Lord Moncrieff, with the approval of 
the celebrated Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, leader of the evangelical 
party, who could not himself propose it, not being a member of that 
assembly, passed the “Veto Act,” giving a congregation authority to 
reject the patron’s presentee if they deemed him unsuitable to their 
circumstances. Two days later this was followed by a Chapel Act, 
which accorded to ministers of chapels of ease, or quoad sacra charges, 
as they were often called, the same rights as parish ministers. The 
majority of the church believed that they had the power to pass these 
measures without consulting the state, and it was a series of subse¬ 
quent decisions on the part of Her Majesty’s judges, declaring them 
illegal, which ultimately produced the disruption. 

In 1840 a case arose at Stewarton, in Ayrshire, designed to test 
the legality of the boon conferred on the quoad sacra members by the 
Chapel Act of 1834, and was decided against the church by the Court 
of Session again by a majority of eight to five judges, on January 20, 
1843. This decision, which was never appealed against, produced a 
deadlock in the Assembly of 1843, the Evangelical party believing 
that the court was incomplete if the quoad sacra ministers were absent; 
and the moderate party that its decisions would be rendered illegal if 
they were present. Appeals to successive governments to legislate 
had also been made, but in vain. The Rev. Dr. Welsh, the retiring 
moderator, and a prominent member of the Evangelical party, there¬ 
fore read and tabled a protest, after which he moved toward the door. 
All who agreed with the protest followed him from the house. A 
deed of demission was afterward signed by 474 members. Among the 
seceders were all the missionaries to India, to Africa, and to the Jews 
scattered abroad. The great secession now described constituted the 
“Disruption.”—( Buchanan: Ten Years Conflict .) 

Reformed Church.*—The name given first to the Helvetic church, 
which rejected both transubstantiation and consubstantiation, regard¬ 
ing the communion as simply a commemorative ordinance. After¬ 
ward, the name Reformed churches was extended to all other religious 
bodies who held similar sacramental views. The founder of the 
Helvetic church was Ulrich Zwingli, who began to preach reformed 
doctrines in 1516, and in 1519 engaged in a contest with Samson, a 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


535 


seller of indulgences. D’Aubigne (Hist. Ref., bk. xv.) himself a Swiss, 
shows that from 1519 to 1526 Zurich was the center of the Swiss refor¬ 
mation, which was then entirely German, and was propagated in the 
eastern and northern parts of the Helvetic confederation. Between 
1526 and 1532 the movement was communicated from Berne; it was at 
once German and French, and extended to the center of Switzerland 
from the gorges of the Jura to the deepest valleys of the Alps. In 
1532 Geneva took the lead. Here the reformation was essentially 
French. The first or German part of the movement was conducted by 
Zwingli, till his death at the battle of Cappel (October 11, 1531), the 
second by various reformers, the third part by William Farel, and then 
by John Calvin. During the last and the present century rationalism 
has extensively pervaded the Swiss church. 

Reformed Presbyterians.—On May 25, 1876, the Reformed Pres¬ 
byterian synod almost unanimously joined the Free Church. (For 
their early history see Cameronian.) 

Cameronian.—Called after the Rev. Richard Cameron, a noted 
Scotch Presbyterian covenanter and field preacher, who, entering the 
little town of Sanquhar, in Dumfriesshire, on June 22, 1680, boldly 
issued a proclamation renouncing his allegiance to Charles II., and 
declaring him deposed for breach of covenants, tryanny, and other 
alleged crimes. Mr. Cameron was killed in a conflict with the military 
at Airdsmoss, in Kyle, and those with him slain, taken, or dispersed. 
His followers became a separate denomination soon after the revolu¬ 
tion of 1688, and developed into the Reformed Presbyterians. 

Secessionists, or Associate Presbyterian Church.—A religious body 
which broke off from the Established Church of Scotland in 1733. In 
1730 the General Assembly had put an end to the practice of recording 
the protests occasionally taken by individual members against the deci- 
sionof the church courts. In 1731 the operationof patronage having led 
to the settlement of an unpopular presentee in the Church of Kinross, 
the presbytery of Dunfermline hesitated to induct him, and his settle¬ 
ment had to be carried out by what was stigmatized as a Riding Com¬ 
mittee. Next year the Rev. P 3 benezer Erskine, one of the twelve 
ministers who had taken the evangelical side in the Marrow Contro¬ 
versy preached strongly against the action of the assembly, in which 
the Moderates were then dominant. The synod rebuking him, he 
appealed to the assembly, which decided that he should be admon¬ 
ished. He and three other ministers protested, for which they were 
first suspended and then loosed from their charges. They at once 
gave in their “secession” from the prevailing party in the church, 
whence arose the name, “the Secession.” On December 6, 1733, they 
constituted themselves into an Associated Presbytery. Four more 
joined in 1737, and a first “ Act and Testimony” was published. In 
1747 an ensnaring burgess oath divided them into Burghers and anti- 
Burghers. In 1806 the voluntary question led to another schism. In 
1820 they were reunited as the Associated Synod, and in 1847, 
ing with the Relief constituted the United Presbyterian Church. 

Evangelical Union.—A religious sect founded, in 1843, by Rev. 


536 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


James Morison, of Kilmarnock, Scotland, who, to do so, left the 
Original Secession Church. With regard to the extent of the atone¬ 
ment and original sin, etc., he embraced Arminian rather than Calvin- 
istic views, while with regard to unconditional election he remained 
Calvinistic. The denomination which he founded still flourishes in 
Scotland. 

Irvingites.—The followers of the Rev. Edward Irving, who was 
born at Annan, Scotland, on August 15, 1792; in 1819 became assistant 
to the celebrated Dr. Chalmers, in St. John’s Church, Glasgow; in 
July, 1823, was chosen pastor of a small Scottish Presbyterian congre¬ 
gation in London, and attracting thither crowds of eminent people, 
had built for him a fine church in Regent Square, to which he removed 
in 1829. On October 16, 1831, the gift of speaking in unknown tongues 
was alleged to have been bestowed upon some people, most of them 
females, in his congregation, the same phenomenon having arisen on 
a limited scale before in Glasgow. Irving believed that the miracle 
recorded in Acts ii., 4-11 had occurred again, and that Pentecostal 
times had returned. The more sober-minded of his flock and his min¬ 
isterial brethren thought differently, and were strongly influenced by 
the consideration that no human being of any nationality recognized 
the new tongue as his own. Irving’s views regarding the human nature 
of Christ were also deemed erroneous. On May 3, 1832, it was decided 
that Mr. Irving was unfit to retain the pastorate of Regent Square 
Church, and on March 15, 1833, the Presbytery of Annan, which had 
licensed him as a preacher, deposed him from the ministry. He died 
December 8, 1834. His followers are often popularly termed Irving¬ 
ites, but the official designation of the denomination which he founded 
is the Holy Apostolic Church. They use a liturgy framed in 1842 and 
enlarged in 1853. They have an altar on which candles are lit, and 
they burn incense. As church officers they have apostles, angels, 
prophets, etc .—American Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

The Presbyterian Church in America was organized in Philadel¬ 
phia in 1705. It grew from the Dutch Presbyterians of New York, the 
Scotch-Irish settlers of Virginia and the Huguenot settlers of the 
south. A radical and a conservative element had from the first caused 
friction, and in 1837 the rupture occurred between the “ Old School ” 
and the “ New School.” The occasion was as to methods of adminis¬ 
tration, but more especially concerning doctrine — the Old School 
being the more and the New School the less Calvinistic. 

Just before and during the Civil War of 1861-1865 a further divi¬ 
sion was caused by the withdrawal of the southern synods of the Old 
School. But the Old and New School came together in 1870. Since 
then the two schools have been practically one body, known as the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Southern 
section, however, known as the Presbyterian Church, in the United 
States, still preserves its individuality. The former in 1893 had 31 
synods, 221 presbyteries, 6,509 ministers, 17,292 churches, 855,089 
communicants. The latter had 13 synods, 72 presbyteries, 1,271 min¬ 
isters, 2,562 churches, 188,546 communicants. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


537 


The Associate Presbyterian Church in America was organized in 
Philadelphia, in 1801, after having existed in an unorganized state 
since 1758. I he Associate Reformed Church was organized in Pequa, 
Pa., 1782, and in 1858 the two were united in the United Presby¬ 
terian Church. 

Papers were read at the World’s Congress of Religions by several 
distinguished speakers. The Rev. Dr. J. L. Withrow said: 

If one were to judge Presbyterians by the display they make on 
public occasions, he might come to the conclusion that they are not 
an active people. But this would be a mistake. Presbyterians are 
pre-eminently a people of deeds rather than words. They have always 
been forward in every cause requiring self-sacrificing effort in the ad¬ 
vancement of the Kingdom of Christ. They are conservative in their 
beliefs, progressive in their methods, and broad or catholic in their 
spirit. Sometimes we are represented as narrow and bigoted; there 
is nothing farther from the truth. We do not require of our church 
members subscription to any creed or confession. The simple and sin¬ 
gle condition of membership is faith in Jesus Christ as the personal 
Saviour of the believer. Any believer in Christ is entitled to enter and 
is admitted into the church. The Westminster Confession is sub¬ 
scribed to only by officers, or ministers and elders, and they are only 
required to subscribe to it as containing the system of doctrine taught 
in the Bible. Thus we give the largest freedom to everybody that 
enters into our ministry. The Presbyterian church is slow to take 
notice of departures from its standards and long suffering toward 
offenders. It is only very rarely, and when the man she deals with 
shows a particularly stubborn or ugly disposition, that she lays her 
hand on him and asks him to desist or deprives him of standing. But 
when roused, the Presbyterian church is tenacious and persistent. It 
believes in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The men 
whom it has reared have been men of action and strength, men of pur¬ 
pose and character. It is a delight to serve her, and the Master 
through her. It is a privilege to testify for her. 

Presbyterian History, by the Rev. Andrew C. Zenos, D. D., 
Professor of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History in the McCormick 
Theological Seminary, Chicago. The contents of the paper were, in 
substance, as follows: Presbyterianism is distinguished from other 

forms of evangelical Christianity, in the first place, by its polity and 
then by its system of doctrine; the latter is historically associated with 
it, but is not logically inseparable from it. Presbyterianism has ex¬ 
isted and may exist dissociated from the Calvinistic system of doc¬ 
trine. With reference to its form of government, Presbyterianism 
claims that it is to be found in the New Testament. It is to be found, 
not as the exclusive system of the New Testament, for the New Testa¬ 
ment contains teaching regarding polity only in solution; in order to 
precipitate this teaching and have it crystallize it is necessary to infuse 



The Ascension 










THE RE LI GO INS OF THE WORLD. 


539 


into the solution the element of human wisdom. All forms of church 
polity are results of the mixture of the divine teaching and the human 
wisdom, that adapts it to actual and differing conditions. In other 
words, Presbyterianism bases itself on the theory that the New Testa¬ 
ment furnishes the foundations of practical church government, and 
on these foundations many structures may be erected, but none that 
will better fit the foundations or carry out their architectural sugges¬ 
tions. Upon this understanding of it Presbyterianism does not need 
to trace its history back to the apostolic age through the Waldensees, 
the Culdees, or any other historic forms or peoples. When asked for 
its historic origin in its present well-defined form, it points back to the 
period of the Reformation when, under the stress of animated contro¬ 
versy, scholars and churchmen went to the Bible to find just what was 
taught in it. And that appeal to the fountain of all authority, and 
arbiter of all questions for the Protestant, resulted in the enunciation 
of the great principles, that Christ is the Head of the church, that the 
church is one body, that it is endowed with authority over its mem¬ 
bers, that this authority must be exercised through representatives, 
that these representatives as representing the same authority must be 
equal, and finally, that the church as a whole should govern its parts 
leading to a system of graded judicatories. 

These principles were reached not at once, but gradually; not by 
a single individual, but by different students of the Word in different 
local centers. In the course of controversy the system has been some¬ 
times called the Genevan and assigned to Calvin as its framer. If 
such assertions mean that Calvin was its most illustrious exponent 
during the age of the reformers they may pass unchallenged; but if 
they mean that the system was elaborated or invented by Calvin for 
the first time they are not true. Long before Calvin Zwingli had 
organized the Swiss Reformation on Presbyterian principles. It was 
adopted in Holland and associated there, after a remarkable struggle, 
with the doctrinal system, which has ever since remained almost indis¬ 
solubly interwoven with it. 

In Great Britain it found special favor in Scotland. Here the 
idea of the covenant as a constructive principle in society was already 
familiar, and with its democratic tendency it prepared the way for 
Presbyterianism. The system was formally adopted in 1560 in an 
inchoate form; the starting point was the general assembly and pres¬ 
byteries were the weekly meetings of ministers. Little by little it as¬ 
sumed more and more definiteness. In England its first appearance was 
not under auspicious circumstances. Political influences and conditions 
were against it. The rulers of the state, having wrested the control of 
the church from the hands of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, were not 
willing to surrender it into the hands of the people. But popular 
ideas steadily gained, and, in spite of all that the Stuarts could do to 
keep the reigns of government in their own hands, the tide in favor of 
popular government, both in the state and in the church, was destined 
to overwhelm them. In 1640 the long parliament met and was con- 


540 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


trolled by the Puritans. But the Puritans were a mixed class, includ¬ 
ing moderate Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Independents. Though 
the strength of these elements was not formally tested, from the be¬ 
ginning the Presbyterians were in the majority. But the dissensions 
among the Puritans prevented the adoption of any of its forms perma¬ 
nently. By appointment of the Long Parliament an assembly of divines 
met at Westminster in 1643, to revise the Thirty-nine Articles and pro¬ 
vide a form of government for the English church. This assembly 
found little difficulty in formulating a Confession of Faith, which it 
was led to do by circumstances instead of revising the Articles. But 
the task of devising a plan of government proved a far more difficult 
task. It was the desire of the majority that all should agree on this 
point. It would have been a comparatively easy matter to coerce as 
small a minority as the Independents and Erastians combined consti¬ 
tuted, but the Presbyterians hoped and worked for unanimity. They 
believed in the soundness of thei. principles and in the efficacy of free 
discussion in bringing about the result they desired to reach. Thus it 
came to pass that much time was consumed in long, diffuse repetitious 
and ultimately fruitless debates over the minutest details of the ques¬ 
tion of polity. Meanwhile the Independents, under Cromwell, came 
to the ascendancy in the political sphere and Presbyterianism received 
a fatal blow in England. 

Yet while it was thus effectually checkmated in England a new 
field was opened for it in the New World. Already before the acces¬ 
sion of Cromwell to power, many had ventured to cross the ocean in 
search of a place where they might exercise religious freedom un¬ 
molested. Through the seventeenth century the stream of emigration 
continued. And as in its origin so in its transplantation from the Old 
World into the New, Presbyterianism was not controlled or directed 
by one man or one center. It came not from one region, but from 
well-nigh every country where it had found adherents. The French 
Huguenot, the German and Dutch Reformed, the Scotch Covenanter 
and the English Puritan planted their colonies and set up their institu¬ 
tions on these shores. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century 
these elements worked together. Then those that used the English 
language in their services of worship moved for a more compact 
organization. In this they found a most efficient leader in the inde¬ 
fatigable Francis Makemie. The first presbytery was organized in 
Philadelphia in 1705. This step led to a new impulse and growth, and 
. a decade had scarcely passed before it was followed by the organiza¬ 
tion of the first synod. This was in 1716. In 1729 the synod passed 
the adopting act, making the Westminster confession the authorita¬ 
tive creed of the church. Thus after a quarter of a century of ex¬ 
istence without a creed the church had a standard. Subscription was 
required to the essentials only. But even thus those in the church 
who had come from New England were not entirely satisfied. Two 
parties therefore began to appear. One for the strict and one 
for the loose interpretation of the constitution. The question of the 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


541 


educational qualifications of the ministry began to be discussed about 
the same time in consequence of the revivals led by the Tennents 
and the increased demand for ministers. These discussions led to the 
rupture of 1746 between the “old” and the “new sides.’ - But the 
differences between these sides were net essential and in 1758 the 
breach was healed. Then came a season of growth, and the organiza¬ 
tion of the church was completed in 1788 with the meeting of the 
first general assembly. The question of the education of the ministry 
was destined to reappear, ana this time lead to the more permanent 
division between what has been known as the Cumberland Presby¬ 
terians and the mother church. In 1801 a “ plan of union” was agreed 
upon between the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians for the 
more effectual carrying out of the missionary enterprises of both 
denominations. While this measure inured to the benefit of Presby¬ 
terianism numerically, it also resulted in the lowering of the standards 
to such an extent that many conservatives became alarmed. The 
difference between the parties grew until definite efforts were made to 
settle the question in the trials of Albert Barnes and Lyman Beecher. 
In these trials the party favoring the looser interpretation of the 
standards prevailed; but the opposite party continued gaining, and in 
1837 took action which led to the disruption of the old and new 
schools. The reunion of 1870 brought these two schools together, but 
meanwhile the war of the rebellion caused another division that still 
remains. 

Presbyterianism has been reproached for these disruptions. While 
the spirit of'disunion is not to be justified, it must be recognized, on 
the other hand, that disruption under given circumstances is unavoid¬ 
able, and if the unity, peace and purity of the church are the objects 
to be aimed at by its organization, the Presbyterian church may be 
forgiven if in the effort to secure the last it has not always succeeded 
in preserving the other two. But it is not true that the existence of 
disruption in its history is an evidence of the lack of catholicity in it. 
Rather may it be safely said that whenever the reunion of Christendom 
is effected Presbyterianism will be found in the forefront of those who 
have labored the most zealously for it. 

“ Presbyterian Doctrine,” by the Rev. Timothy G. Darling, D. D., 
Professor of Systematic Theology in Auburn Seminary, Auburn, N. Y. 
The gist of this paper was as follows: The chief peculiarity of 

Presbyterianism is its definite system of doctrine. It stands for the 
principle that the knowledge of the truth must precede and condition 
the Christian life. Faith is nothing without something definite as its 
object. The realization of the ideals given in the Scriptures can only 
take place to the extent that these ideals are understood and held as 
convictions. The doctrinal standards of Presbyterianism are definite, 
positive and systematic. It does not encourage the view that truths 
held separately are complete or effective; but that they undoubtedly 
are when carefully correlated and associated with one another in a con¬ 
sistent scheme. It proceeds therefore, on the assumption that the 
Scriptures contain a system of doctrine. 


542 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


This system has a center and a circumference, parts and mem¬ 
bers. The cental place in it is occupied by God Himself. The corner¬ 
stone of it is the sovereignty of God. God holds and controls the 
universe absolutely and effectively and from eternity. He does not 
go about either in inherent or self-imposed impotency depending for 
the next move on the action of limited changeable creatures. 

The place of man in the system is that of a creature made in the 
image of God but fallen into utter ruin and needing restoration to his 
former condition. Man, however, has not the power in himself to lift 
himself out of his fallen condition. His state is described as spiritual 
death. If he shall live again it must be by a process of resurrection; 
but this process is from outside not from within. Regeneration is thus 
independent of man’s own activity. 

Man is saved because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is an 
expiation of sin and a propitiation of God. The question whether this 
expiation or atonement is limited or unlimited should have no place 
in a system; it is an atonement not to man but to God. The invitation 
should be extended to all to accept this atonement and be saved. As 
God’s purpose cannot be thwarted, those who are regenerated and 
have received God’s grace persist in it to the end. 

The Rev. David Schley Schaff, D. D., pastor of the Westminster 
Presbyterian church, of Jacksonville, Ill., read a paper on “Presbyteri¬ 
anism and Education,” as follows in substance: Christianity and 
education are inseparable. Throughout the whole history of the 
Christian church this alliance has been noticeable. Especially at the 
time of the Reformation, however, did the essential character of this 
alliance shine forth. The fundamental principles of the Reformers 
required them to lay stress on the education of each Christian. The 
study of the Bible by the individual could not be insisted on without 
education. 

Presbyterianism, more intensely than either generic Christianity 
or the Protestant form of it, is allied to education. First, it is adapted 
by its peculiarities to foster education. This adaptation is to be seen 
first of all in the emphasis it lays on the sermon. The exposition of 
the Word is the principal part of its public worship. The minister is 
chiefly a preacher and teacher; the sermon is a discourse of instruc¬ 
tion, not a harangue; its object is to train the mind so that it can 
grasp and use the truth as given in the Scriptures. The worship of 
the church does not appeal to the aesthetic faculty or to the emotions 
as do those of some other denominations, but to the intellect. 

Second, this adaptation is to be seen in its doctrinal system. 
The Calvinistic pulpit has been characterized by doctrinal preaching. 
The creed and catechisms of Presbyterians are intellectual systems. 
To understand them the membership of the church needs intelligence. 
The Westminster standards, though somewhat too severe and cold in 
their conception and expression and minute in detail, are admirably 
adapted to stimulate thought. They also require a certain amount of 
cultivation in order to be understood and accepted. And these creeds 
are meant to be used by the people. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


543 


Third, this adaptation is seen in the stress laid by Presbyteri¬ 
anism on the activity of the laity in the management of church affairs. 
It finds in the New Testament directly or by implication principles 
which lay on the layman, a part of the burden of the government and 
discipline of the church. To do his work well in this regard the lay¬ 
man must equip himself for it. This is also true of his position in 
church judicatories, such as the session, the presbytery, the classis, the 
synod and the general assembly. 

Fourth, this adaptation is seen again in the emphasis laid on a 
personal acquaintance with the Scriptures. In the Bible is sound 
authority. The ultimate court of appeal is the Bible not any of the 
judicatories of the church. But each individual must reach this court 
for himself. It is to be supposed that the Presbyterian church holds, 
and will hold to the inerrancy of the Bible even in matters of non- 
essential nature, such as geographical and historical details. But 
whatever difference of opinion there may be on this point the Script¬ 
ures are undoubtedly the infallible rule of faith and practice to every 
loyal Presbyterian, and the church demands their acceptance. The 
Bible, however, from its variety of content and comprehensiveness of 
scope, is in itself the means of a liberal education to the one that 
makes good use of it. 

Secondly, in its actual history Presbyterianism has proved itself 
the friend of education. The Calvinistic system in New England may 
be considered the source of inspiration for the large and useful educa¬ 
tional work of that section. Presbyterianism as a distinct form of 
Calvinism founded the Log College in 1746, which, under the names of 
the College of New Jersey and Princeton College, has had such a 
brilliant history. It was here that some of the ablest and most emi¬ 
nent divines of the church have labored, such as Jonathan Dickinson, 
Jonathan Edwards, Witherspoon and a host of others down to the 
Alexanders and the Hodges and Dr. James McCosh, not to speak of 
any now living and in office. The first theological seminary in America 
was founded by the Reformed church in New York city, in 1804; then 
came Andover, then Rutgers in 1810, then Princeton in 1812, then 
Lane, Auburn,Union, McCormick, Xenia, Allegheny, Columbia, Hamp¬ 
den Sidney, Lancaster and others representing different types of the 
Reformed faith. 

Finally, the Presbyterian church makes provision for education 
through all its organized agencies. Through its Board of Foreign 
Missions it plants schools and colleges in foreign countries. The work 
of its Home Missionary Board consists partly in founding and foster¬ 
ing schools in the new regions of this land. Its Board of Freedmen 
cares for the education of the colored population. It has a special 
board, whose object is to aid needy young men through their aca¬ 
demic, collegiate and seminary course on their way to the ministry. 
It has another, whose sole object it is to assist to self-support newly 
founded institutions of learning. 

In every way possible, therefore, it puts the cause of education 
on high ground. 



REV. GEO. MUNRO GRANT 




THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


545 


Missionary Work.—Rev. Herman D. Jenkins, D. D„ pastor of the 
r irst rresbytenan Church of Sioux City, Iowa, spoke as follows: Ameri- 
can Presbyterianism has been always animated by the missionary spirit. 
It was started not for the purpose of founding a sect but of evangelizing 
the colonists. It was a movement not to oppose any other church but 
to advance, not to divide but to multiply. The Presbyterian Church 
in America thus moved toward the needs of men. It made its home 
in the pioneer’s cabin; its house of worship it built in the clearing. It 
grew with the growth of the nation. Each wave of growth carried 
with it the Presbyterian form of Christianity. Thus at present Pres¬ 
byterianism is preached in more than twenty languages throughout 
the land and everywhere it finds a home. It is not limited to the East 
or to the West. In New Jersey four per cent, of the population accept 
it and the same proportion in the Indian Territory. Its home mission¬ 
ary activity is most zealous and widespread. In consequence it has 
grown much faster than the population of the country. While the lat¬ 
ter has been multiplied sevenfold during the last hundred years, Pres¬ 
byterianism has grown fortyfold. Evidently God has blessed it as a 
missionary church. 

Its foreign missionary work is not less remarkable for extent and 
results. It has nearly seventeen hundred missionaries in the foreign 
field, besides seven thousand native workers. It has gathered one 
hundred and fifty thousand members into its communion and over 
three quarters of a million of adherents. The growth of the church 
has been more rapid in the foreign field than at home. At home the 
growth has been within the last ten years at the rate of thirty-nine per 
cent.; abroad it has been one hundred and nineteen per cent. Be¬ 
sides these results there remain the results that cannot be put into 
figures, of work through schools, hospitals and printing presses. 

This survey must have its practical lesson. Evangelism is the 
cure of sectarianism. The needs of such a vastly ramified work must 
be taken into account in all future efforts to modify the standards. 
Missionary enterprises enrich the church with a practical theology. 
We need not a new theology, but the adaptation of the old to the 
needs and exigencies of evangelism. 

Presbyterian Reunion” was read by Principal George Monro Grant, 
of Kingston, Ont., and is as follows: At this Congress every church is 
called upon to review its history, to state its distinctive principles and 
to ask whether it has sufficient vitality to adapt these to changed con¬ 
ditions of time, country and society; in a word, whether it has a moral 
right to continue as a separate organization, and if it has, why it does 
not present an unbroken front and give a united testimony to an 
assembled world. The principles of a church constitute the law of its 
being. They may be obscured for a time, but if the principles be true 
they will reassert themselves. They are the only bases on which a 
reunion can be effected. The church must be broad enough to include 
all who are faithful to its basic principles, and strong enough to put 
up with varieties of opinion not inconsistent with its life. 

35 


546 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


Going back, then, to the Reformation to discover the principles 
of Presbyterianism, we find that, first, the reformers were men of faith, 
and the essence of their faith was the Gospel. They believed that God 
had revealed Himself to Israel as a God of redeeming love, by ways, 
methods and means suited to the childhood and youth of the world, 
and that this revelation culminated in Christ and His Gospel. As the 
revelation was recorded in Holy Scriptures they counted these beyond 
all price, and they studied them under all the lights of their time with 
all the fearlessness of men of science who may doubt their own powers 
but never doubt the truth of God. The first principle, then, of the 
Presbyterian church, is that the church must be evangelical, and the 
good news which it preaches must be that which is contained in the 
Word of God. 

Second, the reformers were churchmen. They did not believe 
that the individual religious sentiment expressed the whole religious 
nature of men and that the term ‘visible church’ was erroneous. They 
believed that the Lord founded a society or church, gave to it Himself 
as Supreme Lawgiver and Head, gave an initiatory rite and an out¬ 
ward bond of union, a definite portion of time for public worship and 
special service, along with injunctions, aims, promises and penalties 
that a society requires for its guidance and which are now Scripturally 
fixed for all time. 

Third, the reformers believed in publicly confessing their creed, 
or setting it forth in formal statements from time to time. These con¬ 
fessions were testimonies, not tests. A faith in the Gospel made them 
comparatively indifferent to formulas. What was originally a testi¬ 
mony has since been made a test. It is the greatest error and mis¬ 
fortune that the flower of the soul of one generation has been con¬ 
verted by a strange alchemy into an iron bond for future generations. 

Fourth, the reformers asserted the democratic principle and em¬ 
bodied it in representative legislatures and courts, to express the will 
and preserve the unity of the church. They discovered the individual 
and gave him his rightful place in the church and in . society. They 
taught that man as man entered into union with God by a spiritual act, 
and that every man who did so was a king, a priest and a prophet. I 
need scarcely point out how far we have departed in practice from this 
principle. We have made our church government aristocratic. The 
laity are wholly unrepresented in our church courts, except in as far as 
it may be said that all the members are laymen, because we have 
abolished the medieval distinction of clergy and laity. 

I have sketched the principles that must be accepted as the basis 
of any future union: The evangelical principle, the church principle, 
the national and confessional principle, and the democratic principle. 
Are we now prepared to act upon these principles frankly and unre¬ 
servedly? If so, it seems to me that the circumstances in which we 
meet give us a wider horizon and a wider outlook than Presbyterian 
reunion, though that might come first. 

We have been proud of our Christianity instead of allowing it 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


54 ? 


to crucify us. So, have we not been proud of our Presbyterianism in¬ 
stead of allowing it to purify and enlarge our vision and fit us for serv¬ 
ice and sacrifice in our own day and land, along the lines on which 
Luther, Calvin and Knox labored, until God called them to Himself? 
We have thus made Presbyterianism a sect, forgetting that Knox’s 
prayer was, ‘ Lord, give me Scotland or I die.’ God heard and answered 
his cry. Should not your prayer be, ‘Lord, give us this great and goodly 
land, as dear to our souls as Scotland was to Knox.’ Remember that 
we shall never commend the church to the people, unless we have faith 
in the living Head of the church; unless we believe with Ignatius that 
where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church, and with Robert 
Hall, ‘He that is good enough for Christ is good enough for me.’ 
Alas, our churches have not thought so; therefore, our history is on 
the whole a melancholy record. The ablest expounder of the New 
Testament that I heard when a student in Scotland was Morison, the 
founder of the Evangelical Union. Him the United Presbyterian 
church cast out. The holiest man I ever knew was John McLeod 
Campbell, whose work on the ‘Atonement’ is the most valuable con¬ 
tribution to the great subject that the Nineteenth Century has produced. 
Him the Church of Scotland cast out. The most brilliant scholar I 
ever met, the man who could have done the church greater service 
than any other English writer in the field of historical criticism, where 
service is most needed, was Robertson Smith. Him the Free Church 
of Scotland cast out from his chair. Of course, these churches are 
ashamed of themselves now, but think of what they lost, think of what 
Christ lost by their sin, and if, wheresuch vast interests are concerned, we 
may think of individuals, think of the unspeakable crucifixion of soul 
that was inflicted on the victims. It would ill become me to suggest 
that you do not do these things better in the United States. Yet, with¬ 
out adverting to recent cases where the ashes of controversy are not, 
I may be pardoned for saying that the church which cut off at one 
stroke the presbytery of New Brunswick, and subsequently those who 
formed the great Cumberland Presbyterian church, and which cut off 
at another stroke four synods without a trial, need not hesitate to fall 
on its knees with the rest of us and cry, ‘we have sinned.’ Fathers and 
Brethren, God give us the grace to repent, and strength from this time 
forth to go and do otherwise. 

Cumberland Presbyterian.—This is an offshoot of the Presbyterian 
Church, in Cumberland county, Kentucky. Its difference from the 
parent body will appear from the following statements: 

“The Origin and Progress of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church, by Rev. J. G. White, D. D., of Stanford, Ill. The name 
is the result of dividing one of the large presbyteries in the bounds 
of the old synod of Kentucky into two, assigning one to the terri¬ 
tory called the Cumberland country, and giving the name to the presby¬ 
tery occupying this section. In the year 1800 a great revival of religion 
prevailed with great power through that country. This revival found 
both warm supporters and bitter opposers among the ministers of the 


548 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Kentucky synod. The revival party, as it was called by the anti¬ 
revival party, were for the most part members of the Cumberland 
Presbytery, and were soon called by the people Cumberland Presby¬ 
terians, The controversy between these two factions in the synod 
soon became bitter, and the revival party was accused of preaching 
docrines contrary to the Confession of Faith, especially God’s decrees, 
election and foreordination, asserting that these brethren were preach¬ 
ing that God loved all men, and that Christ died, not for the elect 
only, but for all the world. This was the entering wedge of division, 
and the ultimate cause of separation. This Cumberland Presbytery 
was dissolved by the synod, and on the 4th of February, 1810, was 
reorganized at the house of the Rev. Samuel McAdow, in Dixon 
Count)/, Tennessee, and consisted of three ordained ministers, and the 
original name still adhered to them. This, in brief, is the history of 
the origin of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Its progress has 
been remarkable. It has grown in eighty-three years from this small 
beginning of three ministers into a denomination of three thousand 
ministers, and about the same number of congregations, with nearly 
two hundred thousand members in full communion. It covers a large 
belt of territory, reaching from Princeton, N. J., to Puget Sound, owns 
and operates a large and prosperous publishing house in Nashville, 
Tenn., and is remarkably well equipped for so young a denomination 
with colleges and universities. It has also been busy and prosperous 
in missionary enterprises, both in our own country and in foreign lands.’ 

Then followed: '‘The Doctrines and Genius of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church,” by D. M. Harris, D. D., of St. Louis, Mo., editor of 
the St. Louis Observer' The distinctive doctrines which separate and 
distinguish us from the mother church, and other branches of the 
Presbyterian family, were clearly set forth, as the following extracts 
from this able paper will show: 

All Cumberland Presbyterians hold that the provisions of salva 
tion are co-extensive with the ruin of the fall; herein we differ from 
other Presbyterian churches, or, rather, from their standards. Again, 
as to the decrees of God, he said: Therefore, Cumberland Presby¬ 

terians reject the doctrine that God has decreed that some men and 
angels are predestinated unto eternal life, and others foreordained to 
everlasting death. We cut loose from all those doctrines of fatality 
so dishonoring to God, and so benumbing and paralyzing to man. Our 
philosophy, as well as our theology, compels us to the conclusion that 
man is a free moral agent, moral because free. These doctrines were 
the real cause of the separation between the mother church and her 
young daughter, the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and are today 
the only real distinction between them. The genius or characteristics 
of the church were shown to be Presbyterian of the purest and 
simplest type. We hold that Presbyterianism is not Calvinism, or anv 
other doctrinalism, but distinguishes one form of government from 
another, from sacerdotalism or priestcraft on the one hand, and from 
individualism on the other, so we, though differing in doctrine from 


THE RELIGIONS OF 1 HE WORLD. 


549 


other Presbyterian churches, are nevertheless Presbyterians, that is 
the form of government under which we live and work as a com¬ 
munity of believers in Christ. But the Cumberland Presbyterian 
church has certain peculiarities, or characteristics, which seem to 
make it moie of an American institution than her sister branches of 
the Presbyterian family. First, like the country in which it was born, 
it is especially tolerant. While holding firmly to the essentials of 
Christian doctrine, it grants large liberties to its ministers and teachers 
of theology in the fields of research; it is a noted fact that there never 
has been a minister tried for heresy in the history of the denomina¬ 
tion. Second, its cohesiveness is a characteristic worthy of note, 
which is shown by the fact that, although the late war swept that part 
of the country where our church was strongest, and thus unavoidably 
placed members in battle against each other on many a battlefield, 
and although the war leveled our churches, colleges and institutions to 
the ground, yet it left our beloved church intact. No sooner was the 
war over than the Cumberland Presbyterians from both sides of Mason 
and Dixon’s line were again meeting in fraternal intercourse in the 
church courts. The war divided families and other churches, but 
failed to sever the Cumberland Presbyterian church. Third, it is 
peculiarly evangelistic and missionary in its spirit. 

“The Mission of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.” The Rev. 
C. H. Bell, D. D.,of St. Louis, Mo., President of the Board of Missions 
of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, said: The first mission of 

the Cumberland PresbjAerian church had been, from the beginning, to 
promote revivals of genuine religion. The church was born in a great 
revival, and she seems to have retained the spirit ever since, and has 
continued to be to an eminent degree an evangelistic church. The 
seasons for large ingatherings seem to be looked for by the pastors 
and official boards of the church throughout the denomination every 
year. Second. It seemed to be a special mission of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church to modify the theology taught in the Presbyterian 
standards. This she certainly has done to a remarkable degree. She 
has evolved a system of theology that is neither hyper Calvinism, nor 
Arminianism. The scriptural middle ground between the two has 
been possessed. The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man 
have found a large place in her revised creed. And through her own 
system of theology, her evangelical and spiritual preaching, she has 
brought such pressure on t.he austere doctrines of Calvinism, that 
while regaining the standards of the Presbyterian church, they are 
almost never preached from her pulpits. And it is safe to predict that 
not another decade shall have passed before the mother church will 
have revised her symbols, and mother and daughter brought to see 
eye to eye. Third. It is a part of her special mission to break down 
sectarian walls of prejudice, and bigotry, and bring together the Prot¬ 
estant forces into practical union and fellowship. Her influence and 
example among the missions of Japan, more than that of any other 
denomination, helped to bring about the happy union of the Protest- 


550 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


ants in that country, and it looks as if in the providence of God, 
it might be the happy medium ground, upon which all branches of the 
Presbyterian church may meet and again unite their mighty forces, 
and thus hasten the coming of the universal kingdom of our Christ. 

In 1892 there were: Presbyteries 124, congregations 2,916, ordained 
ministers 1,670, communicants 171,609, and total contributions #794,576. 

Reformed Church in America.—The Reformed churches are really 
Presbyterian, descending from the Reformed Protestant Church of 
Holland and the Reformed Dutch Church. The Reformed Church in 
America existed in New York as early as 1630, and was the estab¬ 
lished church of the colony until the British occupation in 1664. Its 
doctrines are found in the Dort Confession of Faith—1618-1619—and 
Heidelberg Catechism. 

Its statistics in 1893, were: Synods, 11; classes, 35; churches, 603; 
ministers, 598; families, 53,993; communicants, 97,520; baptized non¬ 
communicants, 41,324; catechumens, 36,037; Sunday-schools, 
884; members, 119,758; contributions for congregational purposes, 
#1,095,764. 

The Reformed Church in the United States or German Reformed 
Church differs little from the foregoing. Its statistics for 1893 show: 
8 synods, 56 classes, 885 ministers, 1,583 congregations, 212,830 mem¬ 
bers, 1,563 Sunday-schools, 149,023 scholars, and #3,022,174 for con¬ 
gregational purposes. This church accepts the Confession of Faith, 
revised in the Council of Dort, 1618-1619, consisting of thirty-seven 
' articles; the Heidelberg Catechism; the Compendium of the Chris¬ 
tian religion; the Canons of the Council of Dort: Predestination, 
definite atonement of Christ; man’s entire corruption and helpless¬ 
ness; his conversion by God’s grace alone; and perseverance of the 
saints in grace. 

The Reformed Presbyterian Church in America claims lineal 
descent from the Scottish Covenanters. It was organized in 1798. It 
insists that only the Psalms should be sung in public worship and that 
the Lord’s Supper should be given to those only who accept the doc¬ 
trines of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. It claims some 15,000 
communicants. 

The United Presbyterian Church in America was organized in 
Pittsburg, Pa., May 26, 1858, by the coalescing of the Associate and 
Associate Reform churches. Its “Testimony” declares the general 
principles of Presbyterianism, but is ultra Calvinistic, and denounces 
slave-holding and secret societies, and declares the singing of the 
Psalms in public worship obligatory. Articles 3 and 4 declare: 

God created man in a state of perfect holiness and with perfect 
ability to obey Him, and entered into a covenant with him, in which 
covenant Adam was the representative of all his natural posterity, so 
that in him they were to stand or fall as he stood or fell. 

Our first parents, by breach of covenant with God, subjected them¬ 
selves to His eternal wrath and brought themselves into a state of 
depravity wholly inclined to sin, and unable, of themselves, to per- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


551 


form a single act of acceptable obedience to God; that their posterity 
are born in the same state of guilt, depravity and inability, and so will 
continue until delivered therefrom by the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

Article 14. That slave-holding is a violation of the law of God 
and contrary to the letter and spirit of Christianity. 

Article 15. That all associations which impose an oath of 
secrecy or an obligation to obey a code of unknown laws, are incon¬ 
sistent with the genius and spirit of Christianity, and church members 
ought not to have fellowship wdth them. 

Article 18. That it is the will of God that the songs contained 
in the Book of Psalms be sung in His worship, both public and private, 
to the end of the world; and in singing God’s praise these songs 
should be employed to the exclusion of the devotional compositions 
of uninspired men. 

In 1893 there were: Synods, 10; presbyteries, 62; ministers, 805; 
congregations, 935; pastoral charges, 759; communicants, 111,119. 






Rev. H. $. Williams, Chicago. 











XXII. 

UNIVERSALISM. 



Universalism. 


E doctrine held by large numbers of Christ¬ 
ians that all men, and also the devil and fallen 
angels, will be forgiven and will enjoy eternal 
happiness,—This belief is very ancient, and 
passages implying it may be found in the 
works of Origen and his followers, Gregory 
of Nyssa, Chrysostom, etc. It is also said to 
have constituted part of the creed of the Lol¬ 
lards, Albigenses and Waldenses. Among 
the English divines who have held some form 
of this doctrine are Tillotson, Burnet, and 
William Law, and more recently the late Pro¬ 
fessor F. D. Maurice. All Unitarians hold it, 
and most of the Universalists agree with the 
Unitarians in rejecting the doctrine of the 
Trinity. The Universalists ground their rea¬ 
sons for their doctrine in the love of God, who, they say, is only angry 
with sin, not the sinner, and therefore if the sinner repents even after 
death his repentance will restore him to God’s favor. The sovereignty 
of God will be finally vindicated by the ultimate harmony of the 
moral universe, and the submission of all things in heaven and earth to 
His righteous will. When righteousness is triumphant, peace and hap¬ 
piness will prevail; until then pain and suffering will be instruments to 
work out the will of God. They profess to prove their doctrine from 
Scripture, quoting in support of it Matt, xxv., 46, John xvii., 3, 1 Cor. 
xv., 22, Phil, ii., 10, Eph. i., 10, Col. i., 19, 20, and 1 Tim. iv., 10. Univer¬ 
salism is better known as a distinct sect in America than in England. 
In 1827 a. division arose among the American Universalists concerning 
punishment after death, some asserting it to be limited, while others 
denied it altogether .—Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

The authorized profession of belief is called the Winchester Pro¬ 
fession, adopted in 1803, in Winchester, N. H. 

Article I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God and of 
the duty, interest and final destination of mankind. 

555 



7 



556 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Article II. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is 
Love, revealed in one Lord, Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, 
who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and 
happiness. 

Article III. We believe that holiness and true happiness are 
inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to main¬ 
tain order and practice good works; for these things are good and 
profitable unto men. 

Restorationists.— I. The followers of Origen in the opinion that 
after a certain purgation proportionate to their delinquencies all will 
be restored to God’s favor and to paradise. 

2. The opponents of Hosea Ballou, of America, who held that 
retribution is limited to this life, and that at the resurrection all will 
be restored to life and to happiness. 

As a modern movement Universalism began in 1770, under John 
Murray. The first society was formed in Gloucester, Mass., in 1779. 
Its evolution into a church was effected in 1870 in Gloucester. Its 
organization is presbyterio-congregational. 

The General Convention has jurisdiction over clergymen and 
denominational organizations. 

State conventions exercise within state limits a similar juris¬ 
diction, subject to the General Convention. 

Parishes are the people, associated for religious improvement and 
public worship. 

Universalists differ from one another on the question of future pun¬ 
ishment, and as to the grade of being, occupied by Jesus Christ, some 
believing in his pre-existence and others in his mere humanity, but all 
hold that he was endowed with the Divine Spirit to be a perfect ex¬ 
ample and Savior. They teach God’s universal fatherhood, man’s 
universal brotherhood, the certainty of retribution, which is always 
remedial, the necessity of repentance as a prerequisite to salvation, 
and the triumph of Christ over evil resulting in universal holiness and 
happiness. 

There were in this country in 1890, 40 state conventions, 956 
societies, 893 edifices used for church purposes, 49,194 members, and 
church property valued at $8,054,333. 

Universalists claim that universal restoration was a doctrine of 
primitive Christianity. 

In the World’s Religious Congress in Chicago in 1893 papers were 
read in the Universalist Congress, of which the following paragraphs 
are abstracts: 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


55 ? 


“ Universalism a System, not a Single Dogma.” Rev. Stephen 
Crane, D. D., of Earlville, Ill. Dr. Crane said: Every system 

of theology has one basal idea, one central and fundamental prin¬ 
ciple, that gives unity and consistency to the whole system. Every 
doctrine is based upon and framed into right relations with this 
all-controlling principle. The basal idea of Universalism is the love 
of God. It postulates an infinite, active benevolence as the foun¬ 
dation of all. It puts a boundless Jove at the heart of things* and 
with this love it makes all things harmonize, and in the light of it 
seeks to interpret all things.” * * * After showing that sin is the 

result of man’s wrong choice, and is therefore no impeachment of 
God’s character, he said “that having chosen the wrong, man still had 
the power to choose the right, and that God can so educate him as to 
induce that choice. But Universalism is not a system of ‘ Natural¬ 
ism.’ It has room and a place for Christianity. It recognizes the 
work and mission of Christ. It does not, however, see in His mission 
any effort to change the character of God or reverse the moral order 
of the world. Christianity is not a reconstruction, but a revelation of 
what is. It shows us the Father; it does not change the character of 
the Father. * * But in so much as Christianity is a new spiritual or 

moral force in the world, it is not in opposition to any such force already 
in the world. It does not seek to reverse the natural order of things. 
It is supernatural but not ‘ unnatural.’ It does not oppose nature; it 
adds itself to nature. The only thing it opposes is sin, and this be¬ 
cause sin is unnatural. The sinner is out of and not in the natural 
order; therefore, Christianity opposes him and seeks to bring him back 
into the natural order.” 

“Universal Holiness and Happiness the Final Result of God’s 
Government.” Rev. John Coleman Adams, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
This paper was one of the ablest read to the congress, but it was so 
dovetailed as to render quotation very difficult. A passage or two will 
enable the reader to judge its quality. After defining and illustrating 
the law that all motion is along the line of least resistance, Dr. Adams 
said: Within and without the soul, in the nature of man and the 

nature of things outside him, the line of least resistance is in the 
direction of goodness, the fulfillment of the soul’s true life, conformity 
to the divine will and purpose. All a man’s inner nature protests 
against the deflections of sin. We resist our ownselves, or rather we 
have all our own moral organization against us when we do evil. Sin 
is the violation of our own natures,.and when we do violence to those 
natures there is a great outcry from within. Looking into the soul 
alone, we find that‘the way of the transgressor is hard.’ His own 
nature is a constant resistance and hindrance to the sinner. The re¬ 
sistance which man’s soul makes to every fresh indulgence in evil, the 
unrest of the passions, the pangs of remorse, the still more bitter tor¬ 
ment of evil dispositions whose satiety brings still insatiate cravings— 
all attest the fact that his moral nature is organized so as to make the 
line of least resistance run in the direction of righteousness. Tracing 
through the Scriptures the prophecy of the final end of evil and the 



Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner. LL. D.. Boston. Mass. 




THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


559 


triumph of universal good the essayist closed by saying: History 

is prophecy. The future is writ in the past. The record of our race 
shows one long, unremitting conflict, from the dreary lowlands where 
the human race began to the fair plains where now it builds the cities 
of its pride. But it is a running battle toward peace, purity and per¬ 
fection. Man has fought his way to the higher life. All his upward 
struggle has pointed to a time when good shall triumph over evil. 

“ Universalism the Doctrine of the Bible,” Rev. Alonzo Ames 
Miner, D.D., LL. D., Boston, Mass. Regarding the Bible as author¬ 
ity, Dr. Miner proceeded to quote its testimony in behalf of universal 
salvation. The principal texts quoted were Ps.cxxxlx, 1-12; Isa. xxxv, 
1, 2; xlv, 22-24; lv f 10, 11; lxv, 17. 18; Rev. xxi, 1-6; Heb. ii, 14-15; Ps. 
ii, 7, 8; Isa. xlii, 1-4; Daniel vii, 13-14; Luke iv, 16-21; John xvii, 1-4; 
Romans viii, 20, 21; viii, 37-39; 1 Cor. xv, 24-28; 47-48; Phil, ii, 9-11; 
Heb. viii, 8-12; Ps. xix, 7-11. He showed the application of his cita¬ 
tions. He said: Let us turn now to another point of view, a new 
and the most important aspect of the question. The Bible is given to 
man for the accomplishment of a moral work; not simply to foretell, 
but to secure his salvation. The divine agent in the accomplishment 
of this work is our Lord Jesus Christ. We may expect, therefore, to 
find the pulse of God’s purpose in Christ throughout all the Scriptures. 
He is, in the divine purpose, a lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world. He was given all power in heaven and on earth for the accom¬ 
plishment of His mission. Up to this time the government of God, 
which primarily was outward and visible, had been gradually deepen^ 
ing in its spirituality until Christ, the culmination of God’s spirit in 
man, was revealed to the world. He thus becomes an object lesson to 
the children of men, as perfect a representation of God among men as 
it is possible to present; hence, He is fitly termed ‘the brightness of 
the Father’s glory and the express image of His person.’ Holding 
this place it is hardly possible that there should not be (1) prophetic 
allusions to Him through all the ages; hardly possible that these allu¬ 
sions (2) should not correspond in breadth and significance to the 
representations that Christ Himself makes touching His agency and 
ultimate success, and hardly possible (3) that the commentary thereon 
given us by His holy apostles should not present a like breadth and 
significance, thus making the Bible to be Christo-centric and har- 
monious.” 

Thus have we seen that the Bible is its own justification. It 
teaches us the divine immanence. As a record of God’s government, 
and of the inspiration of His servants, it is a revelation of His charac¬ 
ter, His attributes, His will, His purpose, His ordinations. In both 
the Old Testament and New there shine out prophecies justifying the 
declaration that God is love; that He is good unto all, and that His 
tender mercies are over all His works; that through the general record 
of God’s government runs the golden thread of God’s purpose of uni¬ 
versal redemption in Christ. The breadth and universality (1) of the 
prophecies concerning Him; (2) of His own exposition of His minis¬ 
try, and (3) of the apostolic commentary thereon, exhibit a unity of 


560 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


doctrine which shows the one divine mind behind all the ages. We 
have seen also that the character of the divine government, the proper 
exposition of the rhetoric of retribution, and the inherent and spiritual 
nature of the divine rewards and punishments are perfectly concurrent 
with the breadth, fullness and glory of Christ’s success in the ultimate 
salvation of the whole world. 

“ Universal Restoration; the Doctrine of the First Five Centuries.” 
Rev. John Wesley Hanson, D. D. This paper traced the teachings 
of Primitive Christianity on human destiny from the days of the 
apostles, and quoted from the Sibylline Oracles (A. D. 80-150), Clem¬ 
ent of Alexandria (A. D. 180-220), Origen (A. D. 186-254), Theodore 
of Mopsuestia (350-428), Titus of Bostra (A. D. 338-378), Gregory of 
Nyssa (A. D. 329-370), and his sister Macrina, and many others. It 
was shown that from A. D. 220-400 there were but four theological 
schools in which young men were prepared for the Christian ministry in 
all the world, and all four inculcated universal restoration. Clement and 
Origen, who were the first to define the generally accepted doctrines 
of the church, were quoted, and also Dietelmair, who says: “Univer- 
salism in the fourth century drove its roots down deeply alike in the 
east and the west, and had very many defenders;” and Gieseler, “The 
belief in the inalienable power of amendment in all rational creatures, 
and the limited duration of future punishment, was general, even in 
the west and among the opponents of Origen;” and Doederlein, 
“ The more highly distinguished in Christian antiquity any one was for 
learning, so much the more did he cherish and defend the hope of 
future torment sometime ending.” After a large number of quotations 
from the early fathers of the church, the author quoted the Rev, 
Thomas Allin, Episcopalian, who says in a recent volume: “In that 
famous age of the world’s history, * * * Universalism seems to have 

been the creed of the majority of Christians in the east and west alike; 
perhaps, even of a large majority, * * * and in the roll of its teachers, 
* * * were * * * most of the greatest names of the greatest age 
of primitive Christianity;” and Dr. Edward Beecher, Presbyterian, 
“ Beyond all doubt, in the age of Origen and his scholars, and in the 
times of Theodore of Mopsuestia (A. D. 200 to A. D, 420), the weight of 
learned and influential ecclesiastics was on the side of universal resto¬ 
ration.” The paper closed: Nothing can be more evident to the 

careful reader of the early history of our religion than that the anni¬ 
hilation of sin and evil, and the universal elevation of the human fam¬ 
ily to holiness and happiness, was the primitive doctrine of the Chris¬ 
tian church. Our distinguishing doctrine is not, therefore, as many 
suppose, a new one; it is the revival of an old one. It is a return to 
the positions of Clement, of Alexandria, seventeen hundred years ago. 
It is the rejuvenation, the restoration, the renaissance, the re-birth of 
Christianity. 


XXIII. 

UNITARIANISM. 




I 


Unitarianism. 


E Unitarians profess no creed, and differ 
widely among themselves from a mere theism 
to an acceptance of the supernatural and mir¬ 
aculous. I he name is adopted by those who, 
conceiving of the Godhead as unipersonal, 
regard the Father as the only true God. The 
term first appears ( unitaria religio) in a decree 
of the Transylvanian Diet, October 25, 1600. It 
superseded the terms Arian and Antitrinitarian, 
employed in earlier decrees, and was adopted 
by the Transylvanian Unitarians as the desig¬ 
nation of their church in 1638. This body, 
now the Hungarian Unitarian Church, has had 
religious liberty since 1569, and has been pre¬ 
sided over by a succession of bishops, from 
Francis David (died 1579) to Joseph Ferencz, 
the present bishop, who has a seat in the Upper Chamber of the 
Hungarian Diet. This church has some 60,000 members. Its stand¬ 
ard of doctrine, interpreted with freedom, is the Summa Universal 
rheologies Christiancs secundum Unitarios (1787). Its theology was 
originally Arian and Anabaptist; but after it had yielded to the per¬ 
sonal influence of Faustus Socinus, its (unofficial) standard of doctrine 
was a manual usually styled the Racovian Catechism (1605). At 
Amsterdam, by the issue (begun 1665) of the “ Fibrary of the Polish 
Brethren,” the Unitarian name was introduced to Western Europe. In 
England it was first used by Thomas Firmin, a philanthropic mercer, un¬ 
der whose auspices appeared “A Brief History of the Unitarians, called 
also Socinians ” (1687). Firmin (died 1697), a Sabellian, meditated the 
formation of Unitarian societies, the members of which were to be in 
communion with the Church of England. In i7o6Thomas Emlyn, a 
Presbyterian divine of Arian views, fined and imprisoned at Dublin for 
denying the Deity of Christ, published “A Vindication of the Worship 
of the Ford Jesus Christ on Unitarian Principles.” He preached for a 
few years to a small congregation in London at Cutler’s Hall. At his 
death (1741) he had outlived his movement. In 1774 Theophilus 
Lindsey, who had resigned (1773) the living of Catterick, Yorkshire, 
opened a chapel in Essex street, Strand, revising the Prayer-book to 

563 





Rev, Robert Collyer, New York 



















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


565 


suit the exclusive worship of the Father This was the signal for the 
severance of the Unitarians from other Nonconformists as a distinct 
leligious body. Influential congregations of English Presbyterians, 
and the small body of Old General Baptists, had become permeated 
with Aiian views, and were largely prepared for a further step. The 
ablest theologian of the party was Joseph Priestley, the distinguished 
chemist, originally an Independent. In 1791 Lindsey and Priestley 
founded a Unitarian Society, the basis of which, designed to exclude 
Arianism, was formulated by Thomas Belsham. In 1825 the British 
and Foreign Unitarian Association was organized on a wider basis. 
The Welsh Unitarians have a similar history to those of England. 

In the United States the Unitarians sprang from the Congrega¬ 
tional body. King’s Chapel in Boston, the oldest Episcopal church in 
New England, adopted a prayer-book on Lindsey’s plan in 1785, and 
became Congregational in 1787. Its then minister, James Freeman, 
D. D., was the first avowed Unitarian preacher in America. Channing 
came out as a Unitarian in 1815. His Baltimore sermon (1819) marks 
the cleavage between the Unitarian and orthodox sections of the 
Congregational body. In Boston the Unitarians are a power, and they 
show great vitality in other parts of the states. They have divinity 
schools at Cambridge, in connection with Harvard University, and at 
Meadville, Pa. Some important bodies approximate to them in their 
views of the Godhead. The Universalists are the nearest of these; 
the Christians, a Baptist body, the Christian Disciples, and the 
Hicksite section of the Quakers, are all more or less Unitarian in 
theology. 

Unitarians have no formulated test of membership, and have 
always shown great varieties of opinion. The Arian school has little 
influence, except in Ireland. The Socinian theology, with its worship 
of Christ, has never been completely adopted in Great Britain or 
America. Priestley’s Unitarianism includes a determinist philosophy 
and a strong element of supernaturalism. The return to a spiritual 
philosophy was initiated by Channing. Many of his followers, influ¬ 
enced by Emerson and Parker, have done their best to relieve Christi¬ 
anity of its supernatural ingredients. All own a spiritual allegiance to 
Christ, though varying as to the nature and extent of his authority. 
Appealing to Scripture as a witness for their views, Unitarians have 
generally limited revelation to the communication of spiritual data. 
They reject a substitutionary atonement, and are usually advocates of 
a universal restoration. 

Unitarianism as an organized interest has never taken large 
proportions, and it is not easy to estimate its actual strength. It has 
produced a number of influential men, far in excess of its denomi¬ 
national importance; and the stress which it lays on individuality, 
while checking its progress, has added to its power. By the Toleration 
Act (1689) the open preaching of Unitarianism was forbidden in Great 
Britain and Ireland, a legal disability not removed till 1813 (in Ireland, 
1817). —American Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 


566 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

The famous Unitarian, James Martineau, D. D., thus defines the 
position of modern Unitarianism: 

I. The conception of a canonized literature belongs to a stage 
of culture that has passed away. What was once used as a divine text¬ 
book has become a human literature; we have, therefore, no authori- 
taitve text-book of divine truth and human duty, so we must open 
our minds to all that speaks divinely to them, whether in the Bible or 
elsewhere; we are not to accept from the Bible any doctrine or duty 
on the mere ground of its being sanctioned there, but are to make our 
acceptance of it conditional on its standing the tests of truth and 
obligation. I claim it as a noble though severe advantage that, 
through failure of the text-book principle, we are driven from words 
to realities, and must sink right home to the inward springs of relig¬ 
ion in our nature and experience; it is the unwritten oracles of God 
that have most deeply stirred the hearts of the devout; the ever-living 
God is the one reality that is ever with us, from moment to moment 
speaking within us, not less present to us for knowledge and love 
than to ancient seekers and servants of his will. 

II. From the person of Jesus everything official, attached to 
Him by evangelists or divines, has fallen away; and He is simply the 
divine flower of humanity, the realized possibility of life in God—no 
consciously exceptional part to play. It was inevitable that by His 
disciples Jesus should be. identified with the ideal messiah. When He 
was so, whether and how far with sanction from Himself, are second¬ 
ary questions. I will only say that, when the really historical ele¬ 
ments in the gospels are cleared from later additions and editors’ col¬ 
oring, it appears to me very doubtful whether He personally claimed 
the messianic character. Even with the apostles themselves, the 
messianic drama was not to be inaugurated till His return from 
heaven, for which they were on the watch until death. So long as the 
Scriptures were to us a divine text-book, and the statements of the 
authors were taken on trust, we believed in this drama as a reality yet 
to come. I have spoken of it as having lost its credibility and reality, 
because the central condition, which held it all together—the return 
from heaven—has failed and come to naught eighteen centuries ago. 
An eschatology thus unfulfilled in its very nucleus cannot retain our 
faith in its accessories. The poor device of slipping the date and put¬ 
ting it all off ad libitum is an evasion which can satisfy no honest 
mind. And with the eschatology must fall away from the person of 
Jesus all the official claims of which it is the sequel. It belonged to 
His age to see in Him the messianic king. It belongs to every age to 
follow Him with venerating spirit as the divine-souled Galilean 
prophet, the supreme representative of the filial life in God and self- 
identification with humanity to which the pure in heart are called. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


567 


Rev. T. R. Slicer, of Buffalo, traces the history of the Unitarian idea 
from the Sermon on the Mount to the Nicene creed (A. D. 325). He 
declared that the absolute being of God remained untouched through 
the growing centuries by the growing claims of Christ. No father of 
the church, for three centuries after Christ, lost sight of the subordi¬ 
nation of Christ to God, or claimed Him to be otherwise than a repre¬ 
sentative of the Father. The rank growth of dogma began in the Third 
century. The Holy Ghost was not given a place as the Third Person 
of God until the Eighth century. The true, original Unitarians were the 
Jews of the First century, but those now known as eady Unitarians were 
those who sought to revive the simple primitive faith in the unity of 
God of the early Christians. The Christian church deteriorated from 
the Third century until a mistake was regarded as a crime and an im¬ 
puted error fatal. 

Rev. Dr. J. H. Allen gives an historical sketch of Unitarianism 
during the pre-transcendental period, from 1800 to 1835, when it 
existed only in and around Boston. The Rev. Geo. H. Batchelor de¬ 
clares that its characteristic is still transcendental, inasmuch as Emer¬ 
son was its great exponent. Reason and right as revealed in man’s 
mental and moral constitution is man’s ultimate authority. The Rev. 
John C. Learned, of St. Louis, declares that the principles of Emerson 
and Parker still characterize the denomination. He said: 

The impulse given by Parker and Emerson to our churches has 
been pushing toward some such culmination as this Parliament of 
Religions, a noble sympathy of faith and fellowship, though it will be 
a long time before the music of this divine classic will seem sweet to 
ecclesiastical ears. This impetus was largely heightened, first by the 
publication of several books which formed an epoch in theological 
thought, Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ and Renan’s ‘ Life of Jesus,’ and 
others; and the outcome of the war for the abolition of slavery brought 
limitless possibilities of material and spiritual advancement. . The 
Unitarian denomination shared in the new hopes, invoked the spirit of 
organization, and the growth in breadth and depth goes on steadily 
and rapidly. 

The Revs. Messrs. Hornbrooke, Crooker, Crothers, Simmons and 
Savage unfolded the Unitarian doctrines; man’s knowledge of religious 
truth results from his own experience; Jesus, “an ascending man;’’ an 
immanent God revealed “ in law which is love, and love which is law;” 
man, “ the last link in evolution,” still containing some of the elements 
of the beast, but moving upward, and working them out; and in the 
words of Dr. Savage, the instincts of the soul and psychological 

science give the warrant of life eternal. 

Professor Toy, of Harvard University, declares that all Uni¬ 
tarians accept the'results of the higher criticism; the Rev. Dr.Thayer, 
of Cincinnati, said, “there is no partial revelation;” the Rev. Dr. 
Crosskey, of England, rejected all miraculous interference with the 
laws of nature, and regarded every event in outward nature and in the 


568 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


I 


history of man as resulting from evolution, and held all rites, cere¬ 
monies and ordinances as subordinate to obedience of the laws of 
God. 

The names of Channing, Margaret Fuller, Alcott, Dwight, Eliza¬ 
beth Peabody, Emerson, Ripley, Whipple, Hedge, Ticknor, Lowell, 
Prescott, Palfrey, Motley, Bancroft, Everett, Sumner, Curtis, Bryant, 
Longfellow, Holmes, Samuel G. Howe, Dorothea Dix, Mary Carpen¬ 
ter, Dr. Bellows and others were referred to as among those who had 
adorned the Unitarian annals. 

Socinianism.—A form of Unitarianism which is identified with 
Laelius and Faustus Socinus. The former, born in 1525, early adopted 
Antitrinitarian views, and diligently propagated them among his 
friends, but making no public avowal of them, he escaped persecution 
and died a natural death at Zurich, in 1562. His papers came into the 
hands of his nephew, Faustus (1539-1604), who in the main adopted 
his convictions and zealously promulgated them, both in Transylvania 
and in Poland. He denied the existence of Jesus Christ previous to 
his birth of the Virgin Mary, and to this extent was opposed to Ari- 
anism as well as to Trinitarianism. He, however, accepted the doc¬ 
trine of the Miraculous Conception, and allowed to the teachings of 
Christ peculiar authority, on the ground that during His life He was 
translated to heaven, where revelations were made to Him. He also 
taught that after Christ's final ascension, power was delegated to Him 
to assist men in working out their salvation, and that He. was invested 
with attributes by which He was virtually deified, so that He may be 
spoken of as God, and is entitled to our worship and obedience. Socin¬ 
ianism is sometimes used loosely as synonymous with Unitarianism, 
but it differs in important particulars, not only from Arianism, but 
from the more modern and rationalistic phase of Unitarianism, which 
represents Christ as simply a man in whose birth and life there was no 
element of the supernatural. 

In 1890 there were in the United States 421 Unitarian societies, 479 
places of worship, and 67,749 members, with church property worth 
$10,335,100. 


XXIV. 

METHODISM. 




Methodism. 


NK of the leading religious systems of 
English-speaking races. A religious so¬ 
ciety existed at Oxford in the year 1727, 
among the members of which were John 
and Charles Wesley and George White- 
field, young men studying for orders. 
They and their associates were half- 
derisively called the “ Godly ” or the 
“Sacramentarian Club” (because they went 
through a mocking crowd to communi¬ 
cate at St. Mary’s), and finally, Method¬ 
ists, from the methodical way in which 
they performed their religious duties. 
The first Methodist meeting-house was 
built in Bristol, England, in 1740; later 
the foundry in Moorfields, London, hired for a term of years was 
fitted up as a preaching-house. In 1744 the first conference was held; 
it was attended by six persons, all clergymen. At the conference held 
at Leeds in 1755, the separation between itinerant and local preachers 
was made broader; the former were to be supported by the contri¬ 
butions of the societies; the latter to support themselves by their 
ordinary callings, preaching during hours of leisure. By 1767 there 
were thirty-two of the former and some hundreds of the latter; in 1791 
the former numbered 312. 

Charles Wesley, who had rendered the Methodists and the 
English churches generally great service by his hymns, died in 1788, 
and John, at the age of nearly eighty-eight, on March 2, 1791. 

In this country the Methodists have a numerous membership, 
being, next to the Roman Catholics, the most extensive religious 
denomination. They have a membership (according to the census of 
1890) of about four and a half millions, and are divided into sixteen 
sects. The government of the churches is generally Episcopal, although 
some of the bodies adhere to the primitive method of control. The 
two dominant bodies are the Methodist Episcopal Church and the 
Methodist Episcopal Church South, which formerly composed but one 
connection, but in 1844 divided on the question of slavery. 

For a long time previous to 1844 there had been an intense 

571 






















THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


573 


antagonism existent between factions of the Northern and Southern 
communicants, the question of slavery furnishing ground for contest. 
The Southern members were almost a unit in their advocacy of the 
institution of domestic slavery, while the Northern members were 
almost as solidly opposed to it. The contest had, however, been 
limited to sermonic and newspaper discussions until James O. Andrew, 
a slave-holder, was, by the General Conference, elected a bishop. The 
Northern members resolutely protested against the supervision of a 
slave-holding bishop, while the Southern contingent were equally 
determined that he should exercise his functions. After a stormy 
session of the conference, steps were taken looking to a secession of the 
great body of the Southern membership. Led by such men as Leroy 
M. Lee, David S. Doggett, Lovick Pierce, Thomas O. Summers, 
Leonidas Rosser, J. E. Langhorne, and others, almost the entire body 
of communicants in the slave-holding states seceded, and established a 
new connection, which they christened the Methodist Episcopal 
Church South, while the Northern wing of the body retained the old 
name. A bitter fight in the courts for the ownership of the church 
property ensued and resulted in a victory for the Southern church. 
F'or many years there was, as a result of this contest, the most intense 
animosity between the two branches of the church, but this is now 
happily, after the lapse of half a century, almost obliterated. 

The ministry is itinerant, the term of incumbency being limited, 
and the appointments made by the bishops and their councils (com¬ 
posed of presiding elders or sub-bishops). In doctrinal points they 
coincide with the Wesleyan Church, with but few minor differences, 
and may properly be regarded as an integral part of the great body of 
Wesleyans. 

In 1784 John Wesley had executed a deed poll in chancery, which, 
reserving his rights and those of his brother, provided that on his 
death his place should be supplied by a permanent body of one hun¬ 
dred ministers, meeting at the conference, and called the Legal 
Hundred. They still constitute the supreme governing body of the 
Wesleyan Methodists. When it meets, it fills up by co-optation aU 
vacancies which may have arisen during the year. The annual con¬ 
ference, during the consideration of spiritual questions, is composed 
of ministers only; but during the discussion of financial matters it 
consists of 240 ministers and 240 laymen .—American Encyclopedic Dic¬ 
tionary. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in their twenty-five Articles of 
Religion name the following points as their cieed: dhe Tiinity. the 
Word or Son of God was made very man, possessing two perfect natures 
whereof is one Christ very God and veiy man, the resunection of 
Christ; the Divinity of the Holy Ghost; the sufficiency of the Holy 
Scriptures, as containing all things necessary to salvation; obedience 
to the commandments of the Old Testament; belief in original sin as 
attaching to the nature of every man; belief in the free moral agency 
of man; belief in the doctrine of justification through faith in Chi 1st, 
good works pleasing and acceptable to God, though not a ground of 


574 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


justification; the utter absence of power to perform works of superer¬ 
ogation; the possibility of sin after justification; the true Church 
of Christ a congregation of faithful men in which the word of God is 
preached and the sacraments administered; purgatory, worshiping 
and adoration of images and saints repugnant to the Word of God; 
all speaking in the congregation to be in such tongue as the people 
understand; the sacraments signs of grace, and two only divinely 
established: baptism a sign of regeneration and a profession of 
faith; the Lord’s Supper—a sacrament of redemption by Christ— 
disclaims transubstantiation; the wine and the bread should be 
received by the laity; the perfect oblation of Christ, finished upon 
the cross; ministers may marry at their discretion; freedom in its 
rites and ceremonies; respect for rulers of the United States and 
allegiance to their authority and laws; the riches and goods of Chris¬ 
tian men are not common property—liberality in alms giving; permits 
judicial oath taking. 

The Wesleyan Methodists teach the following doctrines: 

• i. A Christian church is a society of believers in Jesus Christ 
assembled in any one place for religious worship, and is of divine 
institution. 

2. Christ is the only Head of the Church, and the Word of God 
the only rule of faith and conduct. 

3. No person who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, and obeys the 
gospel of God our Savior, ought to be deprived of church member¬ 
ship. 

4. Every man has an inalienable right to private judgment in 
matters of religion, and an equal right to express his opinion in any 
way which will not violate the laws of God or the rights of his fellow- 
men. 

5. Church trials should be conducted on gospel principles only; 
and no minister or member should be excommunicated except for 
immorality, the propagation of unchristian doctrines, or for the 
neglect of duties enjoined by the Word of God. 

6. The pastoral or ministerial office and duties are of divine 
appointment, and all elders in the Church of God are equal; but 
ministers are forbidden to lord it over God’s heritage, or to have 
dominion over the faith of the saints. 

7. The church has a right to form and enforce such rules and 
regulations only as are in accordance with the Holy Scriptures, and 
may be necessary, or have a tendency, to carry into effect the great 
system of practical Christianity. 

8. Whatever power may be necessary to the formation of rules 
and regulations is inherent in the ministers and members of the 
church; but so much of that power may be delegated, from time to 
time, upon a plan of representation as they may judge necessary and 
proper. 

9. It is the duty of all ministers and members of the church to 
maintain godliness and to oppose all moral evil. 

10. It is obligatory on ministers of the gospel to be faithful in 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


575 


the discharge of their pastoral and ministerial duties; and it is also 
obligatory on the members to esteem ministers highly for their work’s 
sake, and to render them a righteous compensation for their labors. 

Primitive Methodists, nicknamed “ Ranters.”—A section of the 
Wesleyan community which arose in Staffordshire, England, under the 
leadership of Mr. Hugh Bourne (1792-1852). Having held camp- 
meetings like those of America, he was censured for it by the English 
Wesleyan Conference in 1807 and, seceding, formed a new connection, 
the first class-meeting of which was held at Standley, in Staffordshire, 
in 1810. In doctrine the Primitive Methodists agree with the Wesley- 
ans. They more freely admit laymen to take part in their government. 
In 1883 they had 1,147 traveling preachers, 15,982 local preachers. 
1 0,994 elders, 4,437 chapels, 1,812 other preaching places, 4,184 Sun¬ 
day-schools, 400,597 scholars, and 196,480 members. 

Bible Christian Methodists in 1852 had 403 chapels, 113 itinerant 
ministers, 1,059 local preachers, and 13,682 communicants. They are 
sometimes known as Bryanites. 

Bryanites.—Founded by Mr. William O. Bryan, a Wesleyan local 
preacher in Cornwall, England who, separating in 1815 from the main 
body of the Wesleyans, began to form separate societies. In 1829 he 
left the body he had formed. 

The Wesleyan Reformers, New Connexion, and other subdivisions 
of this body have appeared from time to time, with slight differences 
from the parent body. 

The Protestant Methodist Church was organized to resist the too 
clerical character of the Methodist P 2 piscopal Church. It is Methodist 
except that it is non-Episcopal. Its cardinal principles aside from the 
general tenets of Methodism are “The Lord Jesus Christ is the only 
Head of the Church, and the Word of God is the sufficient rule of faith 
and practice, in all things pertaining to godliness,” and “ a written 
constitution establishing the form of government, and securing to the 
ministers and members of the church their rights and privileges, on an 
equitable plan of representation, is essential to, and the best safeguard 
of, Christian liberty.” There were in 1890 2,529 congregations, 1,923 
churches, 575 halls used for religious purposes, 141,989 members, and 
$3,683,337 church property. 

The Wesleyan Methodists in this country agree with other Meth¬ 
odists except that when organized in the early forties they rejected 
episcopacy, presiding elders, and established lay representation 
which did not obtain in the Methodist Church until 1868. It also 
declared against slavery, intemperance, and secret societies. 

Calvinistic Methodists. — A section of the Methodists, distin¬ 
guished by their Calvinistic sentiments from the ordinary Wesleyans, 
who are Arminian. Wesley and Whitefield, the colleagues in the great 
evangelistic movement which did so much spiritually and morally to 
regenerate England in the eighteenth century, differed with regard to 
the doctrines of grace, Wesley being Arminian, and Whitefield Calvin¬ 
istic; the latter revival preacher may be looked on as the father and 
founder of Calvinistic Methodism. Other names, and specially that 




Prof. Milton S. Terry, D.D., 


Evanston, 


Ill. 









THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


577 


of Mr. Howell Harris, of Trevecca, should be mentioned in connection 
with it. In its distinctive form it dates from 1725, but did not com¬ 
pletely sever its connection with the English church till 1810. In 
government it is now Presbyterian. Its great seat is Wales. 

Evangelical Association.—Albrights, or German Methodists, are 
substantially at one with other Methodists. The membership is about 
100 , 000 . 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized on account 
of the color prejudice of other Methodists. They have made such 
progress that in 1890 there was 44 conferences, 2,481 organizations, 
4,124 church edifices, 452,725 members, and $6,468,280 church property. 

The Zion African Methodist Episcopal was organized in 1879. 
They elect their bishops annually. In 1890 there were 1,704 organiza¬ 
tions, 1,611 places of worship, and 349,788 members. 

In the World’s Congress of Religions, in the Methodist Congress, 
on “ The Philosophy of the Methodist Doctrine,” Rev. M. S. Terry, D. D., 
Evanston, Ill., said: There is no written creed in the Methodist Church, 
but a “ common consensus of fundamental doctrine, so well understood 
and cherished by the great body of our people that no minister 
or layman can noticeably make any considerable departure from 
it without speedy detection. Wesley’s Fifty-three Sermons, 1771, 
in four volumes, is ‘ the most authoritative form of Methodist doctrine.’ 
These, along with his ‘ Notes on the New Testament,’ constitute the 
theological standards which are formally recognized in the ‘ Deed 
of Declaration,’ and in the trust deeds of all the Wesleyan chapels 
of England. By common consent these have been accepted for a hun¬ 
dred years as containing the substance of doctrine everywhere held.” 
Dr. Terry defined these dogmas under three heads: 1. In their prac¬ 
tical character, as answering to the needs and longings of man’s 
religious nature. 2. In their successful conflict with opposing systems, 
especially with Calvinism 3. In their adaptation to the catholic 
spirit of the modern Christian world. 

Polity of Methodism.—The Rev. Jacob Todd, D. D., Philadelphia, 
Pa.: Methodism has twenty-nine organizations. The class-meeting 
is “ the primordial cell of organic Methodism.” Then comes the society, 
then the quarterly conference, then the district conference, then the 
annual conference, last of all the general conference. The peculiarities 
of Methodism are: First, the class-meeting; second, probation; third, 
local preachers; fourth, itinerancy; fifth, general superintendency. 

The Status of Methodism.—The Rev. H K. Carroll, D. D., of the 
New York Independent: The Methodist body became an independent 
body in this country in 1784. At the beginning it had only its vital 
faith, its burning zeal to spread the Gospel, its simple but novel 
methods of work, and its power, born of the baptism of the Spirit, to 
reach the hearts, touch the consciences, and transform the lives of the 
common people. The common people heard the Methodist preacher 
gladly, and crowded Methodist altars, filled Methodist class-rooms, 
and multiplied Methodist churches. 

37 





Rev. Ferdinand Iglehardt, D. D., New York 














THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


579 


It is the gloiy of Methodism that it won its membership, 
not fiom other chinches, but from the unconcerned, unconverted 
multitude. 

At the piesent time all branches of Methodism have 51,489 socie¬ 
ties, according to the census of 1890. No other denomination or 
denominational family has a number equaling one-fourth of the 
Methodist total, except the Presbyterian, which returns 13,476. The 
Roman Catholic and other Catholic bodies stand next below the Pres¬ 
byterian, with 10,276. The total of all bodies is 165,177. It would, 
therefore, appear that those accredited to the Methodist family con¬ 
stitute nearly one-third of all the societies of all denominations in the 
United States. Methodists constitute somewhat less than twenty- 
three per cent, of all communicants of all denominations, and nearly 
thiity-three per cent, of all Protestant communicants. In other words, 
nearly every fourth communicant is a Methodist, and among Protes¬ 
tants every third. 

Revivals.—The Rev. F. C. Iglehart, D. D., N ew York city: 
Revival is from re vivo , to live again. Revivals are good or bad. They 
must necessarily be occasional, but they are instrumentalities used by 
the Holy Spirit in conversion. Public meetings, Bible readings, 
prayer, music and the will of the sinner were mentioned as agencies 
in the work. The Holy Spirit may be willing, the pastor and the 
members may be willing, there may be preaching, praying, singing, 
and yet the sinner may, and often does, refuse to come to the Savior. 
It is quite popular, nowadays, not only for the enemies, but the friends 
of Christ, to apologize for sinners, and publicly abuse the church 
because the unconverted are not brought into the fold. This course 
is as mistaken in policy as it is bad in principle. The avarice of Judas 
was more powerful than the love of Christ. The logic of these abus¬ 
ers of the church would blame Christ for not saving Judas, and the 
apostles for not holding a prayer-meeting and believing in his conver¬ 
sion. The church is not perfect. She comes far short of her duty. 
But whatever good has been done, she has done; whatever souls have 
been saved, she has brought to Christ. 

Peculiarities of Methodist Doctrines.—The Rev. Thomas B. 
Neely, D.D., LL.D., Philadelphia, Pa.: Jonh Wesley and his father 
were educated Church of England ministers. The son had no inten¬ 
tion of organizing a new church, but his doctrine of justification by 
faith caused his practical rejection from the Episcopal Church. 

This doctrine of a free and full salvation by faith is at the founda¬ 
tion of what are called peculiarly Methodist doctrines. In one sense 
this was not a new doctrine. Wesley taught the philosophical doctrine 
of the freedom of the human will, a dogma now accepted by the leading 
philosophers. This is the key to Methodist doctrine. Then came the 
doctrine of the witness of the spirit to those who are regenerated. 
After this came the doctrine of Christian perfection. He magnified 
the most important practical doctrines and put little stress upon those 
which belonged to the realm of metaphysics or mere speculation. 
Wesley put more emphasis on Christian character than he did on mere 


580 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


dogma, though he believed in creeds as well as deeds. Following his 
example Methodism has always been broad and at the same time 
evangelical. As one has said, some churches have tried to preserve 
their spirituality by their orthodoxy, but Methodism has preserved 
its orthodoxy by its spirituality. Methodism is orthodox but liberal. 
It is liberal but orthodox. Methodism is the evangelical broad church 
with a broad and simple creed; making more of spiritual life than of 
theological disputations, but at the same time tenaciously holding thej 
truth as it is in Christ Jesus. 

In 1883 there were 33,385 itinerant preachers, 77,935 local preach* 
ers and 5,054,564 members in all the world. 



t 


XXV. 

CONGREGATIONALISM. 




Congregationalism. 


EWING the tenets of the Congrega- 
tionalists under the two heads of doctrine 
and church government, the former does 
not essentially differ from that of the 
other Protestant denominations or from 
that of the Evangelical party in the 
Church of England. It is not in doctrine 
but in government that their peculiarity 
consists. They believe that every con¬ 
gregation has independent powers of 
self-government, uncontrolled by any 
bishop or presbytery, or other external 
ecclesiastical authority. They recognize 
a ministry, have deacons as subordinate 
rulers in the congregation, but allow the 
congregation itself to decide who are fit 
to join its ranks, and to act with judicial 
power in cases of discipline. 

Congregationalists in general believe 
their form of church government to be of divine authority, and to 
have been that of the Apostolic churches. The adherents of Episco¬ 
pacy and of Presbyterianism, etc., on the contrary, reject this view, 
and put in similar claims for their own systems. 

Among the sects which from the thirteenth century separated 
from the dominant church, some doubtless had no closer bond than 
that of fraternal sympathy between different congregations. To 
descend to more modern times, the tenets of Robert Brown were 
essentially those of modern Congregationalism. He was born 
about the middle of the sixteenth century. He was first a preacher, 
then a schoolmaster, and afterward a lecturer. From about 1585 he 
inveighed with fiery vehemence against the corruption, and to a cer¬ 
tain extent against the constitution, of the Established Church, his 
philippics being varied by thirty-two successive imprisonments, some 
of them in cells where he could not see his hand at noonday. Not¬ 
withstanding all efforts to intimidate him, he succeeded about 1593 in 

583 





Rev. Frank Gunsaulus D. D. Chicago. 







THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


585 


setting up a congregation in London. Those in favor of his doctrines 
were then estimated at 20,000 in number. After a time many of them, 
with Mr. Brown himself, were obliged to remove to Holland, where 
several churches were set up. There they were free to act according 
to their convictions, but falling into divisions among themselves, they 
so disgusted their leader that he returned to England, conforming to 
the Established Church which he had so vehemently and persistently 
denounced. 

Among the churches in Holland one was founded at Leyden, by 
Jacobs and Brown, in 1616. Mr. John Robinson soon after became 
minister of the church. He modified the Brownist tenets, rendering 
them less extreme, and is by many regarded as the real founder of 
independency. In his “ Apologia pro Exuhbus Ang/is , qui Brownistce 
vulgo appellantur ,” published at Leyden in 1619, the Latin word i?ide- 
pemienter (—independently) occurs, which may have been the origin 
of the word Independents as applied to men of his faith. It did not, 
however, come into use till between 1640 and 1642. It occurs in the 
title of a work, “Apologetical Narrative of the Independents,” pub¬ 
lished in 1644. In 1616 Henry Jacobs returned to England from Hol¬ 
land and founded a meeting-house. It was the first unequivocal Inde¬ 
pendent or Congregational church in England. In 1620 a part of Mr. 
Robinson’s congregation at Leyden removed to Plymouth, in New 
England. They were followed by others of the same denomination, 
as well as by persecuted Puritans generally all through the seventeenth 
century. There the foundations of the Independency or Congrega¬ 
tionalism of the new world were laid deep and broad. 

When episcopacy was abolished by act of parliament in 1642, the 
Presbyterians became dominant, and in taking steps to set up an 
Established Church of that type over England as well as Scotland, 
refused toleration to dissenters. Among those dissenters were Oliver 
Cromwell, who was regarded as an Independent, and most of his sol¬ 
diers. After in vain petitioning for that religious freedom to which 
they were entitled, and which a more enlightened age would have 
granted them, they became alienated from Presbyterianism and from 
the parliament. 

After completely defeating the royalists, Cromwell had been 
forced by pressure he could not withstand to allow Charles I. to be 
beheaded. The parliamentary party was known to their opponents, 
without discrimination, as Independents or Roundheads. After the 
defeat of the adherents of Charles II. at Worcester and the purging of 
Parliament of the members hostile to them, that body of the dissent¬ 
ers properly known as Independents gained religious toleration from 
the law. Only two Independent ministers had approved of the execu¬ 
tion of Charles I., but a good deal of odium had come upon the name 
in general. The word Independent was a vague one; it had been 
adopted when it became popular by many men not under the influence 
of religion, and it was exchanged for the term Congregational. The 
term occurs in the title of the “ Declaration of Faith and Order owned 
and practiced in the Congregational churches in England, agreed upon 


586 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


and consented unto by their elders and messengers meeting at the 
Savoy, October 12, 1658.” 

The restoration of Charles II., in 1660, brought heavy trial to the 
Congregationalists, as to the other dissenters from the Episcopal 
Church. The revolution of 1688 and the Toleration Act of 1689 
restored them to peace. In the early part of the eighteenth century 
they were declining, till the revival under Wesley and Whitefield 
inspired them with new life. When an official attempt was made, in 
connection with the census of 1851, to ascertain the number actually 
present at the several churches on a particular Sunday, the Independ¬ 
ents or Congregationalists were accredited with having, in England 
and Wales, 3,244 chapels and an attendance of 1,069,760, as against 
14,077 churches, with 5,317,915 hearers, in the Church of England; 
6,579 with 2,194,298 in the Wesleyan Methodist body; 2,789 with 752,- 
343 among the Baptists, and 570 churches with 186,111 present of 
Roman Catholics. This constituted them the third English denomina¬ 
tion in point of magnitude, a position which they still maintain. In 
this country they occupy the eighth place, having 4,868 churches,, 
valued at $43,336,000, and 512,771 members. Of late years Congrega¬ 
tionalism, which heretofore had been almost entirely confined to the 
northern states, has made rapid strides both in the southern and west¬ 
ern states. 

The creed of the Congregationalists, adopted December, 19, 1893, 
is as follows: 

I. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven 
and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; 

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who is of one sub¬ 
stance with the Father; by whom all things were made; 

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who is sent 
from the Father and Son, and who together with the Father and Son 
is worshiped and glorified. 

II. We believe that the Providence of God, by which He executes 
His eternal purposes in the government of the world, is in and over 
all events; yet so that the freedom and responsibility of man are not 
impaired, and sin is the act of the creature alone. 

III. We believe that man was made in the image of God, that he 
might know, love and obey God, and enjoy Him forever; that our first 
parents by disobedience fell under the righteous condemnation of 
God; and that all men are so alienated from God that there is no sal¬ 
vation from the guilt and power of sin except through God’s redeem¬ 
ing grace. 

IV. We believe that God would have all men return to Him; that 
to this end He has made Himself known, not only through the works 
of nature, the course of His providence, and the consciences of men, 
but also through supernatural revelations made especially to a chosen 
people, and above all, when the fullness of time was come, through 
Jesus Christ, His Son. 

V. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa¬ 
ments are the record of God’s revelation of Himself in the work of 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD ,. 


587 


redemption; that they were written by men under the special guidance 
of the Holy Spirit; that they are able to make wise unto salvation; and 
that they constitute the authoritative standard by which religious 
teaching and human conduct are to be regulated and judged. 

VI. We believe that the love of God to sinful men has found its 
highest expression in the redemptive work of His Son; who became 
man, uniting His divine nature with our human nature in one person; 
who was tempted like other men, yet without sin; who, by His humilia¬ 
tion, His holy obedience, His sufferings, His death on the cross, and 
His resurrection, became a perfect Redeemer; whose sacrifice of Him¬ 
self for the sins of the world declares the righteousness of God, and is 
the sole and sufficient ground of forgiveness and of reconciliation with 
Him. 

VII. We believe that Jesus Christ, after He had risen from the 
dead, ascended into heaven, where, as the one Meditator between God 
and man, He carries forward His work of saving men; that He sends 
the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin, and to lead them to repentance 
and faith; and that those who through renewing grace turn to right¬ 
eousness, and trust in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer, receive for His 
sake the forgiveness of their sins, and are made the children of God. 

VIII. We believe that those who are thus regenerated and 
justified, grow in sanctified character through fellowship with Christ, 
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to the truth; that a 
holy life is the fruit and evidence of saving faith; and that the believ¬ 
er's hope of continuance in such a life is in the preserving grace of 
God. 

IX. We believe that Jesus Christ came to establish among men 
the kingdom of God, the reign of truth and love, righteousness and 
peace; that to Jesus Christ, the head of this kingdom, Christians are 
directly responsible in faith and conduct, and that to Him all have 
immediate access without mediatorial or priestly intervention. 

X. We believe that the church of Christ, invisible and spiritual, 
comprises all true believers, whose duty it is to associate themselves 
in churches, for the maintenance of worship, for the promotion of 
spiritual growth and fellowship, and for the conversion of men; that 
these churches, under the guidance of the Holy Scriptures and in fel¬ 
lowship with one another, may determine—each for itself—their 
organization, statements of belief, and forms of worship; may appoint 
and set apart their own ministers, and should co-operate in the work 
which Christ has committed to them for the furtherance of the gospel 
throughout the world. 

XI. We believe in the observance of the Lord’s Day as a day of 
holy rest and worship; in the ministry of the Word; and in the two 
sacraments which Christ has appointed for His church: Baptism, to 
be administered to believers and their children, as the sign of cleans¬ 
ing from sin, of union to Christ, and of the impartation of the Holy 
Spirit; and the Lord’s Supper as a symbol of His atoning death, a seal 
of its efficacy, and a means whereby He confirms and strengthens the 
spiritual union and communion of believers with Himself. 


588 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


XII. We believe in the ultimate prevalence of the kingdom of 
Christ over all the earth; in the glorious appearing of the great God 
and our Savior Jesus Christ; in the resurrection of the dead; and in a 
final judgment, the issues of which are everlasting punishment and 
everlasting life. 

In 1893 the statistics show, churches, 5,140; ministers, 5,003; 
families, 364,350; members, 542,725. 

The Rev. Dr. Simeon Gilbert, of Chicago, writes: 

The genesis of Congregationalism was in England; its first exodus 
to the New World was from Holland, and it was the “ Mayflower” which 
bore to Plymouth Rock this choicest and fruitfulest seed-corn of all 
American immigration, religious, civil and educational. Congregation¬ 
alism stands for the Evangelical faith, a regenerate life, and a principle 
of church government; the church polity is that of a pure democracy, 
under the one Lord and Master. Historically, Congregationalism was 
the pure outcome of the Reformation, and was a return, straight and 
immediate, to the sole authority of the Word of God. In all matters 
of the religious life and church control its loyalty to Christ alone 
makes it disown “ the authority of pope, prelate, prince, or parliament.” 
The acceptance of the supreme authority of God, as revealed in His 
Word and in Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, is the fundamental thought, 
All doctrine, all motives, all rules of the Christian life are subjected to 
this test. But, along with this independency of the local church, Con¬ 
gregationalism holds to the idea of the fellowship of the churches. As 
to the fittest methods of church fellowship, on the basis of the freedom 
and spiritual equality of the several churches, there has been a good 
deal of experimentation. If it took courage to dare to be free , it has 
required an equal degree of courage, while insisting upon freedom, to 
dare to enter upon terms of fellowship , mutual trust, council and co¬ 
operation. The present system of “councils” and of “associations,” 
local, state and national, and at length international, came about only 
by degrees. The existing combination of the immediateness of each 
one’s accountability to God, of the independency of each local church 
of all outside human authority, and with this an organized system of 
church-fellowship, has been an achievement, the victory of a long- 
growing “sanctified common sense.” So that that which not long ago 
seemed to the fathers impossible has now come to appear axiomatic 
and altogether natural. 

Congregationalists do not consider themselves better than other 
Christians, whatever their ecclesiastical name, and they are apt to 
affirm with all emphasis that “one is our Master, and all we are breth¬ 
ren.” If they do not say much about “organic union” and the “re¬ 
union of Christendom,” it is because they care infinitely more about the 
vital and the actual than the merely formal union, that ought every¬ 
where and with all distinctness to be recognized of all who are really 
one in spirit and life with Christ. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . ' 589 

“ r*irst Things in Congregationalism.” Prof. Williston Walker, of 
Hartford Theological Seminary, in a strong, scholarly paper, outlined 
what may be termed the evolution of Congregationalism; its origin in 
England, its partial organization in Holland, its divinely guided voy¬ 
age to America in the “Mayflower,” its early history in New England, 
and its subsequent development. If any type of church government 
deserved to be called American it was Congregationalism. Its for¬ 
mative influence had been felt in a greater or less degree by all the 
religious bodies that occupied this land. It had modified other sys¬ 
tems of church government, making them vastly different from what 
they are on European soil; while, if its adherents in name were not 
the most numerous of the tribes of our American Israel, no Christian 
body equaled the Congregational in services to education and to those 
interests which make for the intellectual well-being of our nation. If 
the Puritans gave us the love of education, the executive force and the 
business ability which have marked the descendants of New England 
parentage throughout our land, the Separatists gave us Congrational- 
ism. The task which they accomplished was the Congregationalizing 
of American Puritanisms. 

“The Congregational Idea.” Prof. Mary A. Jordan, of Smith 
College, Northampton, Mass., set forth its elementary characteristics 
with penetration and justness of thought, emphasizing especially the 
demand it makes fora definitely and continually thoughtful quality in 
the religious life. It tolerates no free-and-easy way of settling one’s 
religious accounts, and favors no easy-going liberality. It cannot be 
content with fog and moonshine. The history of Congregationalism, 
she declared, makes it, of natural right, the most thoughtful of 
churches. Indeed, without constant, aggressive, discriminating, intel¬ 
lectual activity, the Congregational church had no reason for being. 
Robert Browne, Harrison, Greenwold, Barrowe, Ainsworth, John Rob¬ 
inson, John Goodwin and John Milton—if they did not stop to assert 
the duty of religious thought, it was because they were so terribly in 
earnest in securing the means by which to make it possible. Church 
fellowship, that amounts to anything, could not exist in an intellectual 
vacuum. By every requirement of loyalty and consistency, the Con- 
gregationalist should be, in his theology, as in everything else, a stu¬ 
dent, a thinker. Reform belongs inevitably to his programme. God 
must be served by the intellect as well as with the heart. Congrega¬ 
tionalism demands, today as always, a virile, intellectual religion. It 
was in perfect accord with the Congregational idea when Phillips 
Brooks declared that, “Worse than any blunder or mistake which any 
man can make in his religious thinking, is the abandonment of religious 
thought altogether and the consignment of the infinite interests of man 
to the mere region of feeling and emotion; it really ought to be out of 
our best thinking power that our deepest love is born.” In this gen¬ 
eration, of all the world has known, it is not safe to neglect the intel¬ 
lectual element in our religious life. The ideal of the Christian 
democracy of today demands the intellectual vigor and enterprise of 


590 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the Puritan as well as that humane, that divine passion for humanity 
which makes each one ready to put the best that he has at the disposal 
of all, for the advantage not of self but of the great congregation. 

“ The Congregationalism of Today.” Dr. Henry A. Stimson, of 
New York, said: In taking our place in the Parliament of Religions, 

we announce to the world that Congregationalism exists;there had been 
generations of Congregationalists who hardly knew they were such, so 
remarkable had been their denominational unselfishness. They had 
little thought of pushing the denomination, and much of forwarding 
the kingdom of Christ. Where, he asked, is there a parallel to the 
disinterested labors of two centuries of Congregationalists in found¬ 
ing colleges and academies for all the land without a thought of self- 
aggrandizement? They extend across the continent from Bowdoin 
in Maine to Pomona in California—open to all, never Congregational 
in any restricted or sectarian sense, but Congregational in parentage 
and dependence for their daily support. We believe that the church 
is the body of Christ. We need no priest, no clergy, no bishop, no 
eldership to mediate or to secure for us access to the Lord. Therefore 
it is permitted to us also to claim that, as a denomi£ation, we have 
exalted the work of our laymen and have laid exceptional emphasis 
upon the duty of special culture on the part of laymen to meet their 
tasks. 

Rogerians, or American Puritan Ranters, originated in 1677. They 
were followers of John Rogers in New England. They held Sunday 
worship to be idolatry, and considered it to be a religious duty to 
disturb worshiping congregations. 

Hopkinsianism.—Samuel Hopkins, in Newport, R. I., published a 
“System of Divinity” which created a great stir in American theology. 
He denied the imputation of Adam’s guilt, or Christ’s righteousness, 
and maintained that holiness consists in disinterested benevolence, 
and that sin is interested benevolence. Congregations were agitated 
and divided, but no separate sect was formed. 


XXVI. 

FRIENDS. 





- 






. 



Society of Friends, or Quakers. 


EIR founder was George Fox, an illiterate 
man, but of considerable natural ability, born 
at Drayton in Leicestershire, England, in 
July, 1624. He was apprenticed to a shoe¬ 
maker, but could not settle steadily down to 
any secular occupation, the whole bent of his 
mind being toward religion. In 1647, at the 
age of twenty-three, he first began to preach 
independently of all other denominations, and 
by the following year had gained many ad¬ 
herents. When he went to the church of an 
ordinary clergyman, he had at first no scru¬ 
ple in rising to correct what he deemed*' 
erroneous in the doctrine of the preacher. 
Three instances of this are recorded, all of 
date 1649. I n Dter years Fox did not disturb 
public worship. He professed to be commanded by the Lord not to 
use the ordinary forms of salutation, and to substitute “ thee ” and 
“thou” for the more courteous “ you ” in conversation. He deemed 
it sinful to take oaths (those of supremacy and allegiance, for in¬ 
stance), or to payor sanction the payment by his followers of tithes, and 
thus naturally encountered vehement hostility from both the civil and 
ecclesiastical authorities. The rougher section of the common people 
were also his foes; but he unflinchingly propagated his opinions in 
England, on the continent of Europe, and in America till his death, 
on January 13, 1691. The Friends, like their originator, had much to 
suffer, and nobly bore their trials. In the reign of Charles II., Robert 
Barclay, a Scotch knight, was a zealous follower of Fox. In that of 
James II., William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, with its capital, 
Philadelphia, high in the favor of the king, procured them some toler¬ 
ation. After the revolution of 1688 the sect was not molested, and 
were allowed to make a solemn affirmation instead of an oath. They 
have since rendered services to the cause of, education, of liberty, and 
of humanity. They hold the divinity of Christ His atonement, and 
other doctrines generally called evangelical. They give the title of 
the Word of God to Christ alone, and not to the Scriptures. They 
hold that every man coming into the world is endued with a measure 

593 



38 




TO EXECUTION, 

































































































































































































































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


595 


of light, grace, or good spirit of Christ. They are opposed to all 
forms in worship which divert the attention of the mind from the 
secret influence of the unction from the Holy One. They believe 
that the ministry should be unpaid, and decline to pay tithes. They 
believe the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper to be 
shadows, and unnecessary now that the substance has been attained. 
They are opposed to taking oaths and war. They disown the heathen 
names of the days of the week, the observance of times, vain amuse¬ 
ments, and compliments. For many years the Friends, both male 
and female, affected a peculiar style of dress of extreme plainness 
of shape and color, but this custom has been gradually discontinued.— 
American Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

Quakerism began in this country in 1656, and received its greatest 
impulse under William Penn, in Pennsylvania in 1682. There were in 
1890, of Orthodox Friends 10 yearly meetings, 794 congregations, 815 
meeting houses, and 80,655 members. 

The Orthodox Friends, though they have no written creed, hold 
to Christ’s divinity and vicarious atonement, and to the inner light or 
universal inspiration, and spirit baptism, without the rite of water 
baptism. They oppose war and refuse to give oath, holding that 
“ yea ” and “ nay ” are sufficient. 

Howard M. Jenkins, of Philadelphia, at the World’s Congress of 
Religions explained the doctrine of “ The Inner Light; ” “ The Divine 
Immanence;” “The Light Within.” This principle of faith means 
nothing more nor less than the belief in the ever-continuing operation 
of the divine illumination upon the soul of each of God’s children, 
depending in its influence upon the willingness to receive the light of 
truth revealed. It means more than a passive receptiveness. The 
faithful Friend may not only hear the voice of God in his soul, but he 
must obey if he is a consistent follower of his profession. It is thus 
the Friend has become known for integrity and strictness of bearing 
and a pioneer in the reforms inaugurated since the birth of the society, 
two and a half centuries ago. Its chief principle is the Christ rule in 
daily life. Desiring the guidance of the Divine Spirit which was in 
Jesus, and embracing, from the force of His example and through 
inward convincement the infinite truth He illustrated and taught, 
Friends see in it the ideal of a religious life, and have striven to make 
real His teachings, the Spirit, not the letter; reality, not form; love, 
not hatred; brotherly kindness, not oppression; moderation, not 
excess; simplicity, not ostentation; sincerity, not pretense; truth, not 
deceit; economy, not waste; and out of their sincere, if unperfected, 
endeavor to guide their daily acts by these Christian rules, have logi¬ 
cally and directly come their “testimonies,” and most, if not all, of 
their “ peculiarities.” 

The faithful listener to the inspeaking word of God must be fore¬ 
most in every good and righteous cause. George P'ox, the founder of 
the society, very early recognized the equality of woman, and was 
instrumental in giving her a place in eveiy concein and inteiest that 


596 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the world has only partially come to know and respond to at the close 
of the nineteenth century. 

Wilburites.—A section of American Quakers named from their 
leader, John Wilbur, who separated from the main body in the first 
half of the nineteenth century on the ground that the Quakers were 
abandoning their original principles. 

Keithians were a Quaker offshoot in the seventeenth century, a 
sort of Quaker-Baptists. 

Wilkinsonians or Universal Friends were followers of Jemima Wil¬ 
kinson, a Quaker who, in 1780, began a settlement in New York. She 
claimed that she had been raised from the dead, could prophesy, work 
miracles, and was herself perfect. She had quite a following of igno¬ 
rant fanatics, who formed a community that soon died out. 

The Hicksite Quakers.—The Hicksite secession took place in 1827. 
Hicks and his followers objected to the view of Christ’s divinity and 
atonement held by the main body. In 1890 the Hicksites numbered 
seven yearly meetings, 201 congregations, 217 meeting-houses and 
21,992 members. 

There are in England and America, of all schools, some 125,000 
Friends. 



I he (grounds of Sympathy and }-raternity 
Among Religious j\/[en. 

By A. M. POWELL, of the Society of Friends, New York. 



T is in behalf of one of the smaller religious 
bodies, the Society of Friends, that I am in¬ 
vited to speak to you. In the time allotted it 
would be quite impossible to cover exhaust¬ 
ively the whole field of my broad subject, “The 
Grounds of Sympathy and Fraternity Among 
Religious Men.” 

It is altogether natural and proper that in 
form and method and ritual there should be 
diversity, great diversity, among the peoples 
interested in religion throughout the world; but 
it is also possible, as it is extremely desirable, 
that there should be unity and fraternity and 
co-operation in the promulgation of simple 
spiritual truth. To illustrate my thought I may 
say that not very long ago I went to one of the 
great salvation army meetings in New York with 
two of my personal friends, who were also members of the Society of 
Friends. It was one of those meetings full of enthusiasm with volleys 
innumerable, and we met that gifted and eloquent Queen of the Army, 
Mrs. Ballington Booth, to whom I had the pleasure of introducing my 
two Quaker friends. Taking in the humor of the situation, she said: 
“Yes, we have much in common; you add a little quiet and we add a 
little noise.” 

The much in common between these two very different peoples, 
the noisy Salvationists and the quiet Quakers, is in the application of 
admitted Christian truth to human needs. It is along that line that my 
thought must lead this morning with regard to unity and fraternity 
among religious men and religious women. Every people on the face 
of the earth has some conception of the Supreme and the Infinite. It 
is common to all classes, all races, all nationalities, but the Christian 
ideal, according to my own conception, is the highest and most corn- 

597 



598 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


plete ideal of all. It embraces most fully the Fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of mankind. 

Justice and mercy and love it maintains as due from each to all. 
There are no races; there are no territorial limitations or exceptions. 
Even the most untutored have always been found to be amenable to the 
presentation of this fundamental Christian thought exemplified in a 
really Christian life. Here I may illustrate by the experience of 
William Penn among the Indians of North America. He came to 
them as their brother and as their friend, to exemplify the principles 
of justice and truth. It is a matter of history that the relations be¬ 
tween Penn and the Quakers and the Indians have been exceptional 
and harmonious on the basis of this ideal brotherhood of man. Alas, 
that all the Indians in America might not have had representatives of 
this Quaker humane thought to deal with! What a different page 
would have been written in American history. 

Many years later another Friend was sent out under President 
Grant’s administration to labor as a superintendent among the Indians 
—the noble-hearted, true Quaker, Samuel M. Janney. As he went 
among the Indians committed to his charge, he not only undertook to 
deal with them with reference to their material interests, but he also 
sought to labor among them as their friend, and in a certain sense as 
a religious helper and teacher. He talked with those Indians in 
Nebraska about spiritual things. They could understand about the 
Great Spirit as they listened to him, and he told them furthermore the 
wonderful story of Jesus of Nazareth, commending His teaching and 
the lesson of His life and His death to them. They listened, with 
regard to the Son, as they had, with reverence to the Father, but he 
could not impress them, in the face of their sad expenence with a so- 
called Christian nature, with the virtues of the Son. 

Finally one old chief said to him: “We know about the Father, 
but the Son has not been along this way yet.” 

I do not wonder, in the light of the record which this so-called 
Christian nation had made in dealing with those Indians, that they 
thought that they had never seen the Son out that way yet. It is, alas, 
to our shame as a people that it must be said, as a matter of historic 
truth, that the very reverse of the Christian spirit has been the spirit 
shown in dealing with the Indians, who have been treated with bad 
faith and untold cruelty. 

A fresh and living instance of this spirit is illustrated in the chap¬ 
ter we are now writing so shamefully in our dealings with the Chinese. 
We are sending missionaries abroad to China, but what are we teach¬ 
ing by example in America with reference to the Chinese but the 
Godless doctrine that they have no rights which we are bound to re¬ 
spect? We are receiving lessons valuable and varied, from these dis¬ 
tinguished representatives of other religions, but what are we to say 
in their presence of our shortcomings measured by the standard of 
our high Christian ideal, which recognizes the brotherhood of all man¬ 
kind and God as the common Father? 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


599 


I want to say that the potential religious life,—and it is a lessson 
which is being emphasized day by day by this wonderful parliament, 
—is not a creed but character. It is for this message that the waiting 
multitude listens. We have many evidences of this Among the 
recent deaths on this side of the Atlantic which awakens world-wide 
echoes of lamentation and regret, there has been no one so missed 
and so mourned as a religious teacher in this century as Phillips 
Brooks. One thing above all else which characterized the ministry of 
Phillips Brooks was his interpretation, as a spiritual power in the life, 
of the individual human soul. The one poet who has voiced this 
thought most widely in our own and in other countries, whose words 
are to be found in the afterpart of the general programme of this parlia¬ 
ment, is the Quaker poet, Whittier. His words are adapted to world¬ 
wide use by all who enter into the spirit of Christianity in its utmost 
simplicity. In seeking the grounds of fraternity and co-operation we 
must not look in the region of forms and ceremonies and rituals, 
wherein we may all very properly differ and agree to differ, as we are 
doing here, but we must seek them especially in the direction of unity 
and action for the removal of the world’s great evils. 

I believe we stand today at the dividing of the ways, and whether 
or not there shall follow this parliament of religions any permanent 
committee or any general organization, looking to the creation of a 
universal church, I do hope that one outcome of this great comming¬ 
ling will be some sort of action between the peoples of the different 
religions looking to the removal of the great evils which stand in the 
pathway of the progress of all true religions. 

Part of my speech has been made this morning by the eloquent 
ex-governor who preceded me, but I will emphasize his remarks with 
regard to arbitration. There were two illustrations of my thoughts to 
which he did not make specific reference. One is recent in the Behring 
Sea arbitration. What a blessing that is as compared with the old- 
fashioned method of settling the differences between this country and 
Great Britain by going to war. We may rejoice and take courage in 
this fresh illustration of the practicability of arbitration between two 
great and powerful nations. 

I may cite also one other illustration, the Geneva award, which at 
the time it occurred was perhaps even more remarkable than the more 
recent arbitration of the Behring Sea dispute. Among the exhibits 
down yonder at the white city which you doubtless have seen is the 
great Krupp gun It is a marvelous piece of inventive ingenuity. It 
is absolutely appalling in its possibilities foi the destiuction of 
humanity. Now, if the religious people of the world, whatever their 
name or form, will unite in a general league against war and resolve 
to arbitrate all difficulties, I believe that that great Krupp gun will, if 
not preserved for some museum, be literally melted and lecast into 

plowshares and pruning hooks. 

This parliament has laid very broad foundations. It is presentmg 
an object lesson of immense value. In June I had the privilege of 



Calvin W. Pritchard, Kokomo, Ind, 






THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


601 


assisting here in another vvorld’s congress wherein were representatives 
ol : various nationalities and countries. We had on the platform the 
distinguished Archbishop of St. Paul, that great liberal Catholic, Arch¬ 
bishop Ireland. Sitting near him was Father Cleary, his neighbor 
and friend—another noble man. Sitting near those two Catholics was 
Adj itant Vickery, of the Salvation Army, the representative of Mrs. 
Ballington Booth, who was unable through sickness to be present. 
Near these were several members of the Society of Friends, and along 
with them were some Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyteri¬ 
ans and one Unitarian whose face I see here today. All these were 
tremendously in earnest to strike a blow at one of the great obstacles 
to the progress of Christian life in Europe—state regulated vice. 

I cannot deal with that subject now, but I may say that it is the 
most infamous system of slavery of womanhood and girlhood the 
world has ever seen. It exists in most European countries and it has 
its champions in America, who have been seeking, by their propagan- 
dism, to fasten it upon our large cities. It is one of the most vital 
questions of this era, and it should be the care and responsibility of 
religious people everywhere to see that as speedily as possible this 
great shame shall be wiped away from modern civilization. 

Let me tell you an incident that occurred in Geneva, Switzerland, 
three or four years ago. There jumped out of a four-story window 
down to the court below a beautiful young girl. Marvelously, her life 
was spared. A noble Christian woman, whom I count it a privilege to 
number among my personal friends, went to this poor girl’s side and 
got her story. In substance it was this: 

She had been sold for a price in Berlin to one of the brothel keepers 
of Geneva and, as his property, had been imprisoned in that brothel, 
and was held therein as a prisoner and slave. She endured it as long 
as she could and finally, as she told this friend of mine, “When I 
thought of God I could endure it no longer and I resolved to take the 
chances of my life for escape,” and she made that fearful leap and 
providentially her life was spared. What must be the nature of the op¬ 
pression that will thus drive its victim to the desperate straits of this 
young girl? It is a slavery worse than the chattelism, in some of its 
details, which formerly prevailed in our own country. 

Now, what has America to do on this line? America has a fear¬ 
ful responsibility. Though it may not have the actual system of state 
regulation, we call ourselves a Christian country, and yet, in this be¬ 
loved America of ours, in more than one state, under the operation of 
the laws called “Age of Consent,” a young girl of tenyears is held capa¬ 
ble of consenting to her own ruin. Shame, indeed; it is a shame; a 
tenfold shame. I appeal, in passing, for league and unity among 
religious people for the overthrow of this system in European coun¬ 
tries, and the rescue and redemption of our own land from this gigantic 

evil which threatens us here. . , . , 

I now pass to another overshadowing evil, the ever pressing drink 

evil. There was another congress held here in June; it was to deal 


602 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


with the vice of intemperance. I had the privilege of looking over 
forty consular reports prepared at the request of the late secretary of 
state, Mr. Blaine. In every one of these reports intemperance was 
shown to be a producing cause of a large part of the vice, immorality and 
crime in those countries. There is need of an alliance on the part of 
religious people for the removal of this great evil which stands in the 
pathway of practical Christian progress. 

Now another thought in a different direction. What the world 
greatly needs today in all countries is greater simplicity in connection 
with the religious life and propagandism. The Society of Friends, in 
whose behalf I appear before you, may fairly claim to have been 
teachers by example in that direction. We want to banish the spirit 
of worldliness from every land, which has taken possession of many 
churches, and inaugurate an era of greater simplicity. 

The actual progress of Christianity in accordance with its ideal 
may be cited, in a sentence, to be measured by the position of women 
in all lands. The Society of Friends furnished pioneers in the prisons 
of old England and of New England in the direction of Divinely 
inspired womanhood. We believe that there is still urgent need of an 
enlargement of this sphere to woman and we ought to have it preached 
more widely everywhere. There should be leagues and alliances to 
help bring about this needed change. The individual stands alone, 
unaided, comparatively powerless, but in organization there is great 
power, and in the fullness of the life of the spirit, applied through 
organization, it is possible to transform the world for its benefit in 
manv directions. 

m/ 

Some one has described salvation as being simply a harmonious 
relationship between God and man. If that be a true description of 
the heavenly condition we need not wait till we pass beyond the river 
to experience something of the uplift of the joy of salvation. Let us 
band together, religious men and women of all names and national¬ 
ities, to bring about this greater harmony between each other and God, 
the Father of us all. Then, finally, in all lands and in every soul, the 
lowliest as well as the highest, may this more and more become the 
joyous refrain of each, “Nearer, My God, to Thee; Nearer to Thee.” 

“ Our Church and Its Mission,” by James Wood, of Mt. Kisco, N. 
Y., showed that the key of the position of the Religious Society of 
Friends as a separate branch of the church is the great truth taught 
by our Saviour when He said: “If a man love Me he will keep My 
words; and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and 
make Our abode with him.” “ I will pray the Father and He shall 
give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever, even 
the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth 
Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth 
with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will 
come to you.” “This,” the speaker said, “is the most exalting truth 
ever announced to man as pertaining to his existence in this life. He 
who fails to know and realize it, comes infinitely short of the glory 
God offers to him here. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


m 


The founders of the Religious Society of Friends, in laying this 
corner-stone of a separate branch of the church, fully accepted the 
foundation truths of Christianity. These were assumed as the common 
Heritage of Christian believers and fully recognized as the basis of all 
organized Christian bodies. They assume as matters not to be ques¬ 
tioned ad the teachings of Christ, all that belonged to the cross and 
the tomb of Calvary and the triumphs of the resurrection; all that be¬ 
longed to the glories of the Ascension day and all that belongs to the 
presence of Chiist at the right hand of God—His mediation and in¬ 
tercession. Faith in the crucified Saviour must precede faith in the 
ascended, living Saviour. All this was assured and they went to the 
church and to the world with the message that the historic part of 
Christianity only produced its fruitage when the kingdom of Christ 
was established in the soul, with the living King Himself, abiding and 
reigning there. This message was gladly received by multitudes and 
its truth, so long lost sight of, became a mighty power. 

The high-priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the priesthood 
of all believers, who offer spiritual sacrifices and have free access to 
God through the Lord Jesus Christ without the intervention of any 
human instrumentality whatsoever, lies next to the corner-stone of 
distinctive Quakerism. As there is nowhere in the New Testament 
any recognition of classes or orders in the church, no division of be¬ 
lievers into clergy and laity, no mention of any profession having any 
peculiar privileges or special authority, so Friends have never recog¬ 
nized any such.” 

On the subject of philanthropic work done by the Quakers, he 
said: The earliest formal protest against the system of slavery in 

modern times was made by Friends near Philadelphia in 1688. The 
noted Pastorius was among the number. That movement was fol¬ 
lowed by official action in the various Yearly Meetings on this conti¬ 
nent, until finally Friends were the first body of Christians in the land 
not one of whose members owned a slave. From Pastorius to Whit¬ 
tier the protest against slavery never ceased. 

After setting forth the special mission of the Society, in which it 
was shown that it tended rather to spiritual matters than the world, 
the paper concludes: 

Apart from her doctrines, her history and her situation pecu¬ 
liarly fit her for the position referred to. She has wronged no one. 
She has never attacked any denomination. As a little Switzerland, 
insignificant and harmless, peacefully abides among her towering 
mountains and commands the respect and kind consideration of the 
mighty nations of Europe, armed for each other’s destruction, so it 
may be that the Society of Friends, one of the best of all the tribes, 
because of her harmlessness and the impregnability of her position in 
divine truth, may become, in God’s providence, the gathering place of 
the mighty hosts who profess the name of Christ. 

“Our Origin and History,” by Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, of Lon¬ 
don, England, was the next paper. It was read byTimothy Nicholson, 
of Richmond. Ind. It stated, in part: 


604 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The Society of Friends, as is well known, arose in England 
about the middle of the seventeenth century. Many severe, laws, 
originally enacted tor the suppression of popery, remained upon the 
English statute book, which even during the commonwealth, and much 
more after the restoration of Charles II. were relentlessly directed 
against those, who, like the early Friends, whilst opposed to popery, 
were conscientiously restrained from public profession of religion in 
accordance with the ritual and ceremonial generally recognized. 
Thus the history of the Society of Friends, during the first forty 
years of its existence, is a record of cruel persecution, and of patient 
suffering. Several of its principal leaders died in loathsome dungeons, 
whilst many others not only suffered grievous imprisonment, but took 
joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had in heaven 
a better and an enduring substance. In the year 1662 there were at 
one time more than four thousand two hundred Friends in prison in 
England alone.” (Sewell’s History, vol. 2, p. 1.) 

“Church Organization,” by Calvin W. Pritchard, of Kokomo, Ind., 
after reciting that the organization of the Friends was not the result 
of a previously matured system, but was a development as needs ap¬ 
peared, showed that the system of meetings for church discipline, es¬ 
tablished in England before the close of the seventeenth century, has 
since been followed by Friends in all countries. 

“ The Yearly Meeting,” he says, “ is a legislative body; it makes 
laws for the regulation of churches and members, has a general over¬ 
sight of all the great activities of the church, is the court of highest 
appeal, and has jurisdiction over all the Quarterly Meetings and the 
churches that compose them. The Quarterly Meeting is composed of 
several Monthly Meetings, for conference between churches, and is a 
convenient channel of communication between the Yearly Meeting 
and its subordinate branches. The Monthly Meeting is the executive 
body of the church. Through it members are received and dismissed, 
ministers are recorded, all the important officers of the church are 
appointed, and the instructions of the Yearly and Quarterly Meetings, 
and all the important activities of the church are carried out. When a 
Monthly Meeting is composed of two or more churches, each separate 
congregation is organized into a Preparative Meeting, which has 
charge of its own local affairs, and gives preparatory attention to such 
subjects as should go to the Monthly Meeting.” 

There are now 135 Quarterly and 477 Monthly Meetings with 
1,174 churches in Great Britain and America. 

The church government is thoroughly democratic. Every mem¬ 
ber, male and female, old and young, has a seat in all the meetings 
and a voice in all the deliberations, and men and women alike are 
eligible to all the offices, including the Gospel ministry. From nearly 
the close of the seventeenth century until recent years men and women 
sat in separate sessions for transacting business. Each sex had lines 
peculiarly its own, but all matters relating to membership, or concern¬ 
ing the general interests of the church, required the concurrent action 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


605 


of both bodies. The experience our sisters have gained in these 
meetings has done much to fit them for the places of service they now 
occupy with ability and true womanly grace in the Gospel ministry and 
the work of Christian benevolence and reform. In some of the Yearly 
Meetings, and many subordinate meetings, men and women now do 
business in joint session. Divine service precedes all business meet¬ 
ings, the congregations being often large and the ministry very 
searching. 

“ Friends believe that the call and qualification for the ministry 
are from the Lord. Young men and women, who apprehend they are 
called to preach, are expected to exercise their gifts in public speak¬ 
ing at meetings for divine worship, many services affording them good 
opportunity to do so. Godliness of life and the impress of divine 
power give one a place in preaching the word independent of literary 
acquirements. Many ministers who have wielded great influence and 
brought many souls to Christ have been unlearned men. And yet 
Friends are mindful that the highest culture consecrated to God greatly 
increases the power and efficiency of the messenger of the Cross. 




Frondhiem’s Cathedral (Lutheran) in which the Kings of Norway have been crowned the past eight centuries. 













XXVII. 

THE BAPTISTS. 


Baptists. 


[E distinguishing doctrine of the Baptists, 
besides immersion, is that baptism is not 
administered to make men children of God, but 
as a sign that they have become so. The sect 
is an offshoot of Brownism, or Independency, 
and originated about A. D. 1616. They hold 
that it is not according to Scripture to baptize 
infants, but that the ordinance of baptism 
should be administered only to adult believers 
in Christ, and in their case not by sprinkling 
or affusion, but by immersion. Whether the 
early church did or did not baptize infants 
has been, and still is, a matter of dispute. It is 
universally admitted that some of the so-called 
heretical sects of the middle ages were opposed 
to infant baptism. At the time of the Refor- 
whom baptism should be administered came 
very prominently before the church and the world, owing to the fact 
that a considerable number of those who, under the leadership of 
Luther, Melanchthonand other religious chiefs, cast off their allegiance 
to Rome, ultimately abandoned all belief in infant baptism. Their 
opponents called them Anabaptists, implyingthat they administered a 
second baptism, the first one, that dispensed in infancy, still remaining 
in force; while they, of course, repudiated this name, alleging that the 
first baptism given in infancy being invalid, that which they dispensed 
in adult life was the first, and not the second. Their religious fanati¬ 
cism, coupled with the extreme and dangerous political views which 
they adopted, brought the whole Reformation into discredit, and was 
one of the chief causes which operated to create the powerful reac¬ 
tion, of which Loyola became the leader, but which would have arisen 
even if Loyola had never lived. 

The modern Baptists, quiet and law-abiding, have little in com¬ 
mon with the German fanatics now described; moreover, they do not 
come from them by historical descent. The name Anabaptists is now 
confined, except by extreme controversialists, to the Continental fan¬ 
atics of the sixteenth century, while the term Baptists is accorded to 

609 



39 





Rev. W. F. Black, Chicago. 




the religions of the world. 


611 


those who practice baptism by immersion of believers, not as an essen¬ 
tial of salvation, but as “ the answer of a good conscience toward God.” 

The Baptists of this country constitute one of the largest and 
most influential of our religious denominations. Their creed is a modi¬ 
fied form of Calvinism. Their church government is purely demo¬ 
cratic, eveiy member having the right to vote on all important church 
matters. Baptism by immersion, as a confession of faith in Jesus 
Christ, is essential to church fellowship, and almost universally to fel¬ 
lowship at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The practice of 
open communion has not made much headway in the United 
States. The following statistics from the latest published American 
Baptist \ ear Book, will serve to indicate the status of this great 
denomination. The Baptists of the United States have: 


Churches. 36,793 

Membership. 3,383,160 

Ordained members. 24,798 

Associations. M58 

Sunday-schools. 19*93° 

Sunday-school pupils. 1,390,601 

Teachers and officers. 143,607 

Value of church property. $71,080,945 


Aggregate of Contributions for 1892-93. . .$13,907,418.50 

The statistics of the church throughout the world was, churches 
44,069, ordained ministers, 29,871, communicants, 4,184,507. 

Baptist views first attracted public notice in England in A. D. 
1536, the convocation which met in that year having denounced them 
as “ detestable heresies utterly to be condemned.” Those who upheld 
them were subsequently banished from the kingdom by proclamation, 
a few even suffered at the stake; but, as in other cases, persecution 
failed to uproot the system of belief which it was designed to eradi¬ 
cate. The first permanent Baptist congregation in England did not 
come into existence till A. D. 1611; the pastor was Thomas Helwys, 
who, jointly with John Smyth, founded the English General Baptist 
Church. The first Baptist congregation in Scotland was formed by the 
Rev. Mr. McLean in 1765. 

The English Baptists were divided until recently into Baptists, 
General Baptists, and Strict Baptists. The latter were Calvinistic in 
teaching and strongly opposed to admitting any but baptized believ¬ 
ers to the fellowship of the church or the celebration of the Lord’s 
Supper. The Strict Baptists are only few in number and are fast pass¬ 
ing away. The General Baptists were Arminian in teaching. They 
have within the last year amalgamated with the larger body of Bap¬ 
tists, who are liberal in their teachings, and have almost universally 
adopted the open communion principle, both as regards church 
fellowship and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. 

Baptists, with other evangelical Christians, accept the Bible as 
God’s inspired word, the Trinity, the fall of man and universal native 
depravity, vicarious atonement, salvation by Christ alone. They 
hold that baptism can only be administered to adults after their regen- 










612 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


eration. They differ among themselves as to close or open commun¬ 
ion, and Calvinism and Arminianism. The majority hold to close 
communion and are more or less Calvinistic. 

The documents on which the Presbyterians, Baptists and Congre- 
gationalists stand historically are the Augsburg Confession (1530), 
twenty-eight articles, of which twenty-one are affirmative statements of 
doctrine and seven protests against alleged errors; the Basle (1532- 
1536) of twenty-seven articles, the Heidelberg (1575), the Scottish 
(1560), and the Westminster (1643). They are substantially the same; 
only theologians can perceive differences among them. 

Anabaptism.— 1. The doctrine of the German Anabaptists of the 
sixeenth century. 

2. The doctrine of the modern Baptists, looked at from the 
point of view of those who hold that baptism administered in infancy 
is valid, and consequently that if it be repeated in adult life there is a 
second baptism. 

Anabaptist.— 1. A member of a well known fanatical sect which 
largely figured in the ecclesiastical and civil history of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. It began to attract notice within four years of the ever memorable 
31st of October, 1517, on which Luther affixed his theses to the gate of 
the castle church of Wittenberg. The most eminent of its early leaders 
were disciples of Luther, but becoming dissatisfied with the moderate 
character of his reformation, they cast off his authority, and attempted 
more sweeping changes than he was prepared to sanction. The ex¬ 
cesses of the Anabaptists were eagerly laid hold of by the Popish 
party to discredit the Reformation. It was in the year 1534, when 
Boccoldt was in the height of his glory in Munster, that Ignatius Loy¬ 
ola took the first step toward founding the order of the Jesuits, and 
the extension and rapid success of that celebrated fraternity are to be 
attributed in a very large measure to the reaction against Protestantism 
produced by the share which the Anabaptists took in the peasants’ 
war, and the character of the spiritual sovereignty which they set up 
while Munster was in their hands. 

An Anabaptist is one belonging to the modern Baptist church. 
The term is used only by those who believe in infant baptism, and is 
properly becoming obsolete, there being an unfairness in using an ex¬ 
pression which suggests a connection between the turbulent fanatics 
of Munster and the quiet, law-abiding English Baptists.— Ameri¬ 
can Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 

Separates, or New Lights came into being in 1740, in the United 
States. They were really Calvinistic Methodists, and were led by 
Whitefield. They ultimately coalesced with the Baptists. 

Six-Principle Baptists.—They were followers of Roger Williams, 
and claim to be the original Baptists, “ of the first water,” so to say. 
Their six principles were: (1) Repentance from dead works; (2) Faith 
toward God; (3) Immersion; (4) Laying on of hands; (5) Resurrection 
of the dead; (6) Eternal judgment. The body was always small. 

Presbyterian Baptists—A small Baptist denomination under Pres¬ 
byterian government. 


TIIE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 613 

Se-Baptist.—Self-baptizer, because the first baptized himself. 

Disciples of Christ.—The name assumed by a religious sect, other¬ 
wise known as Campbellites, Reformers, or Reformed Baptists. It took 
its rise from the zealous efforts of Rev. Alexander Campbell, an Irish 
Presbyterian minister, to bring about a union of all Christians in 
one fold, the fundamental point being that the Bible alone should be 
taken as the authorized bond of union and the infallible rule of faith 
and practice. His first congregation was organized in Pennsylvania in 
September, 1810. The Disciples of Christ hold the doctrine of adult 
baptism, but in many points differ from the Baptists. 

In 1890 this denomination was represented in all the states except¬ 
ing New Hampshire and Nevada, and in all the territories excepting 
Alaska. There were 7,246 organizations, 5,324 churches, 1,141 halls 
used for religious purposes, 641,051 members, and church property 
valued at $12,206,038. Missouri had a membership of 97,773, Indiana 
78,942, Kentucky 77,647, Illinois 60,867, Ohio 54,425. 

The latest statistics in the hand of the national secretary of the Dis¬ 
ciples’ Home Missionary society give this people a membership of 
nearly one million, with six thousand ministers and nine thousand 
congregations. According to the United States census reports of 1890, 
they are growing more rapidly than any other religious body; in ten 
years they increased eighty-three per cent, as against fifty-seven on 
the part of their closest rival. It is, therefore, refreshing to know that 
such a body of people is in hearty sympathy with all the great advance 
movements of the age, and that for this congress they selected some 
of their very strongest representatives, whose addresses have been 
pronounced by their own people as among the ablest ever heard in the 
councils of the church. There were eight of them, enough to fill a 
volume; but in the space allowed only brief synopses, with occasional 
excerpts from each, can be given. 

“The Creed that Needs no Revision,” by President E. V. Zollars, 
of Hiram College, Ohio, was the seventh address. We hold, said 
he, that there is an all-embracing dominant creed that needs no 
revision, under the influence of which the best human conditions are 
realized, the highest character developed, and the happiest destiny 
secured.” The several characteristics of this creed the scholarly 
president enumerated as follows: First. It possesses universality. 
A class creed would never do. Second. It is simple, coming down 
to the level of the humblest mind. Third. It is profound, satisfying 
the most grasping and comprehensive mind. Fourth. It has vitality— 
is a living, growing reality, meeting man at every point of his upward 
progress with satisfying power. Fifth. It is life-giving and practi¬ 
cal. Sixth. It serves as a sufficient bond of fellowship between all 
Christian hearts. Seventh. It furnishes a model for imitation. Eighth. 
It is an incarnation of God. Ninth. It is of such a nature that every 
man can readily translate it into his own language without loss. Tenth. 
It is a full and complete revelation of the glory of God. Eleventh. 
It is perfect, and incapable of improvement as an objective reality. 


614 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


What, and where is this creed? Necessarily the demands cut us off 
from all human sources. They are so broad that only Jesus the Christ 
can satisfy them, and He is indeed the creed that needs no revision. 
The general acceptance of this creed would produce a feeling of rest¬ 
fulness and confidence, deprive infidelity of its most powerful weapon, 
make the modern pulpit apostolic, marry in divorceless union faith 
and action, destroy the apparent necessity for all other creeds, oblit¬ 
erate all artificial and arbitrary distinctions that dishonor and degrade 
our common humanity, and unite the children of God in the strong 
bond of universal Christian fellowship.” 

“The Promise of Christian Union in the Signs of the Times,” by 
the Rev. B. B. Taylor, D. D., of the Church of Disciples, New York 
city, was the eighth and closing address delivered. In speaking ol 
Christian union he said he desired ” to place the emphasis on the word 
Christian, for it is not denominational union that is needed so much 
today as “ Christian union—union in Christ, union on Christ, union 
around Christ, union under Christ! In secular affairs the tendency is 
toward union, and the tone of present day sermons indicates approach¬ 
ing union in Christ. Disciples say the way to the reunion of Christen¬ 
dom is by a return in faith and in practice, in letter and in spirit, in 
doctrine and in ordinance, to the religion of Jesus as He gave it to 
men—the religion of Christ as it is described in the New Testament. 
Among the prominent signs of union enumerated by the doctor were 
the Parliament of Religions, the International Sunday-school con¬ 
ventions and lesson series, the Young Peoples’ Society of Christian 
Endeavor, the Brotherhood of Christian Unity, and last, but not least, 
Disciples of Christ, are coming to understand themselves better. 

Free Will Baptists.—This body was a secession from the general 
Baptist body in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The main 
body was Calvinistic, and the seceders were Arminian. The leader of 
the movement was Rev. Benjamin Randall. They agree with 
other Baptists on the subjects of baptism and church government, but 
deny the doctrines of Calvinism; personal, unconditional election to 
eternal life in Christ, in consequence of an eternal decree; final perse¬ 
verance, as explained by Calvinism, but hold that election is made sure 
by perseverance only. They practice open communion, and do not 
regard immersion as essential to communion, or as a prerequisite to the 
Lord’s table. 

In 1890 there were 51 associations, 1,586 organizations, 1,225 
church edifices, 349 halls used for religious purposes, 87,898 members, 
and church property valued at $3,115,642. The membership was 
represented in 33 states, and had the largest membership in Maine, 
16,294. 

Dunkards.—A sect of German Baptists founded by Alexander 
Mack, about A. D., 1708. Persecution drove them in 1723 to the 
United States, where they founded a church in Pennsylvania. They 
separate the sexes in worship. Many of them are vegetarians. Also 
called Dippers and Tunkers. They neither take an oath nor bear 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


615 

arms, they wear their beards, and keep the first day. They celebrate 
love-feasts, washing feet, kiss of charity, and right hand of fellowship 
They annoint the sick with oils. 

Church of God, Winebrennarians.—These Baptists are Arminians, 
who resemble other Baptists, except that they practice feet-washing. 
In 1890 they had 479 organizations, 338 churches, and 129 halls used 
for religious purposes, 22,511 members, and church property valued at 
$643,185. 

Mennonites.—The followers of Menno Simons (1492-1559), a priest 
at Witmarsum, in Friesland, who resigned his position from religious 
convictions. His teaching was ascetic rather than dogmatic, except 
that he was antipaedobaptist. The discipline of the Mennonites in¬ 
volved separation from the world, to the extent of refusing to bear 
arms or to fill any civil office. There was no hierarchy, but exhorters 
were chosen by the congregations, each of which was independent of 
all the rest, and from these exhorters elders were selected to admin¬ 
ister the sacraments. The Mennonites spread over Switzerland, Ger¬ 
many, Holland, and even to France. Their chief home now is in the 
United States and Canada. There are also some German Mennonite 
colonies in southern Russia. 

In 1890 there were twelve bodies of Mennonites, which had 550 
organizations, 405 churches, 103 halls, 41,541 members, and $643,800 of 
church property. 

Seventh-Day Baptists, Sabbatarians.—Baptists who, holding that 
the fourth commandment expressly named the seventh as the sacred 
day, and that there is no express command in the New Testament to 
alter that day to the first of the week, observe Saturday as their Sabbath. 
This view arose in the sixteenth century among a minority of'the con¬ 
tinental Anabaptists. Erasmus ( De Amab. Concord ., col. 506), in an 
obscure passage, perhaps alludes to a sect of this nature among the 
Bohemians. In 1620 John Traske, Trasque, or Thraske, published a 
work advocating a seventh-day Sabbath. Even before this he had 
made known his opinions, and in 1618 had been censured by the Star 
Chamber, set in the pillory at Westminster, and thence whipped to the 
Fleet, where he was imprisoned till he nominally retracted his views. 
In 1628 Theophilus Brabourne, a Puritan minister in Norfolk, pub¬ 
lished a sermon, followed shortly after by another publication, in 
favor of Seventh-day Sabbatarianism. He was induced by the High 
Commission Court to abandon his views, which, however, continuedto 
be maintained by his followers. Mr. Edward Stennet, writing from 
Abingdon, in Berkshire, in 1668, said that there were about nine or ten 
churches (congregations) in England holding that the seventh day is 
the Sabbath. In 1851 there were only three congregations in Eng¬ 
land. In New England and other parts of America they are more 
numerous, and issue tracts and republish works bearing on their opin¬ 
ions. Those who hold that the Lord’s Day is to be observed among 
Christians in exactly the same manner as the Jews were enjoined to 
keep the Sabbath ; or who hold rigid views of Sabbath observance, 
are Sabbatarians .—American Encyclopedic Dictionary. 


BIB 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The Seventh-Day Baptists are essentially like other Baptists, 
and might dwell with them in unity, but for the fact that they observe 
the seventh day of the week (Saturday) as Sabbath, and regard it as 
the only Sabbath that is recognized in the sacred Scriptures, either the 
Old or New Testament. They challenge any one to prove that there 
is any warrant for the observance of Sunday in the commands of God, 
or the example of Christ or His apostles. They hold that Christ and 
the apostles kept the fourth commandment as well as the other nine, 
thus proving that it belongs to the moral and not to the ceremonial 
law. They agree with most Protestants that the moral law is of per¬ 
petual obligation, and can see no reason for keeping a day not recog¬ 
nized by it. If the day of the Sabbath has been changed there ought 
to be some positive statement of such change in the New Testament, 
and no such statement, or even implication, can be found. Pressed 
by failure to find a warrant for Sunday keeping, some writers take the 
ground that the law, as given in the Decalogue, is not binding on 
Christians, thus disposing of the Sabbath, and then claim the restor¬ 
ation of the other nine commandments, they being 4 written in the 
heart.’ Why the fourth should be an exception does not appear. 
If it be true that the fourth commandment has become void, then 
there is surely no obligation to keep the first day of the week by virtue 
of the 4 change of day’ theory. This, then, is the dilemma in which 
Sunday-keepers are involved. Either the moral law as given in the 
Decalogue is binding, or it is not. If it is not binding, any transfer 
to the first day of the week is impossible, for no such obligation exists. 
But if it has not been set aside it binds all men to keep God’s com¬ 
mands, both in spirit and in letter. Either horn of the above dilemma 
is fatal to Sunday-keeping. Therefore, Seventh-day Baptists reject 
the claims of Sunday, because they do not rest upon the Word of God, 
and because no amount of obligation to regard Sunday, if it existed, 
could remove the obligation to obey God, and to follow the example 
of Christ in keeping the Sabbath. 

In 1890 there were 6 associations, 106 organizations, 96 places 
of worship, 9,123 members, and church property worth $264,010 in 
the Seventh-Day Baptist organization. 

The principles of the Seventh Day Baptists are set forth in the 
following paper: 


The £)mne Dement in the Weekly 

Rest Day. 

By Rev. A H. LEWIS, D. D., Plainfield, N. J. 


O subject deserves a place on the pro¬ 
gramme of this parliament which does 
not involve truths as wide as the world, 
as lasting as time, and hence vital to 
all the higher forms of religion. 

The theme assigned to me is in¬ 
vested with unusual importance be¬ 
cause of the various and vital interests 
which now cluster around the Sabbath 
question. The demand for reconsid¬ 
eration and readjustment of that ques¬ 
tion is increasing and imperative. It 
has fully entered an epoch of rapid 
transition. 

perience shows that the idea of sacred 
hence of the weekly rest day, is vitally 
connected with the development of religion in individual life and in 
the world. History is an organic unity. No event is isolated; nothing 
is fortuitous. God is constantly settling questions and determining 
issues through events. There is no point on which God has more 
clearly uttered His verdicts through history than on the question of 
the divine element in the weekly rest day. He expressed them in the 
spiritual dearth and disaster which blighted ancient Israel, when the 
nation turned away from doing the divine will in regard to the 
sacred day. Each succeeding century has reiterated these verdicts 
and demonstrated the fact that those who disregard the divine element 
in the Sabbath gather ruin. When the falsehood which says, “No day 
is sacred,” became regnant in the early history of Christianity, spiritual 
canker and decay fastened on the church like a deadly fungus. When 
this same falsehood ripened in the French revolution, God thundered 
forth His verdict again, high above the smoke and din of national 
suicide. At this hour, in Europe and America, in Paris and Chicago, 

617 





Rev. A. H. Lewis, D„ D., Plainfield, N. J 





THE RELIC OINS OF THE WORLD. 


619 


the clouds of divine retribution are gathering, many-voiced, rebuking 
human disregard for sacred time. The slight regard which the world 
pays to these verdicts is as foolish as it is futile and ruinous. Facts do 
not cease because men ignore them. Divine decisions are not removed 
because men invent new theories to show that they ought to be erro¬ 
neous. God and truth outlive man’s ignorance and his experiments in 
disobedience. 

The weekly rest day is not an accident in human history. It is 
not a superficial and temporary phenomenon. It springs from the in¬ 
herent philosophy of time and from man’s relation to God through it. 
Duration is an immediate attribute of God. It is an essential charac¬ 
teristic of the self-existing deity. He is inconceivable without it. 
“Time” is measured duration in which man has being. Herein is it 
true that men “live, move and have their being” with and within God. 
He is forever in touch with His children through this environment of 
duration as definitely as the atmosphere is in touch with their physical 
bodies. Existence within this attribute of God is not subject to man’s 
volition. We cannot remove ourselves from continuous living contact 
with Him, even though we refuse to commune with Him through love 
and obedience. On the other hand, the loving soul cannot hold com¬ 
munion with God without this medium of time; and such are the de¬ 
mands of life on earth that sacred time must be definite in amount and 
must recur at definite periods. This is doubly true because men are 
social beings, and social worship and united service are essential fac¬ 
tors in all religions. 

In accordance with these fundamental principles and demands we 
find that the idea of sacred time, in some of its many forms, is universal. 
It varies with religious and social development and with monotheistic 
and polytheistic tendencies. The supreme expression of this idea is 
found in the week, a divinely appointed cycle of time, measured, iden¬ 
tified and preserved by the Sabbath. It is not a week, but the week; a 
uniform and sacred multiple of days, which has endured, unvariant and 
identical, from the prehistoric period to the present hour All other 
divisions of time are marked wholly by the planets, or are so con¬ 
nected with them as to be variable, through needful adjustment to the 
natural order of things. Imperfect imitations of the week, like the 
“nundine” of the Romans, and the intercalated lunar weeks of the 
Assyrians, serve only to emphasize the supernatural and divine order 
of the week. 

The weekly rest day and the week are the special representatives 
of God, not of “creation” simply, but of the universal Father, Creator, 
Helper and Redeemer; the All in All; the Ever-living and Ever-loving 
One. Springing from such universal facts, and continuing according 
to such divine philosophy, the week and the weekly rest day are inte¬ 
gral factors in the eternal fitness of things. The foundations of relig¬ 
ious life are imperiled when this truth is disregarded or assailed. The 
consciousness of God’s ever-abiding nearness to men is the foundation 
of true religion. 


m 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


Philology is a department of history. Language is embalmed 
thought. It is an archaeological museum of crystallized facts. It gives 
unerring testimony concerning the habits and practices of men in all 
ages. Names are among the most enduring elements of language. 
The existence of a name is proof that the thing existed as early or 
earlier than the name. Thus the so-called “ dead languages ” preserve 
the life of the people who have passed away. Nautical terms in a 
language show that it belonged to a seafaring race. If a language be 
filled with the names of agricultural implements, we know that those 
who spoke it were tillers of the soil, even though the land they inhab¬ 
ited be now a desert. Under this universal law of philology the identity 
of the week in its present order is placed beyond question. 

A table of days carefully prepared by Dr. W. M. Jones, of London, 
assisted by other eminent scholars, shows that the week as we now 
have it exists in all the principal languages and dialects of the world. 
This philological chain encircles the globe, includes all races of men 
and covers the entire historic period. It proves that infinite wisdom 
provided from the earliest time and as an essential part of the divine 
order of creation the weekly rest day, by which alone the universal 
week is measured. Thus God ordained to keep constantly in touch 
with men through this sacred attribute of Himself within which His 
children exist. 

Being founded in the divine order and created to meet a universal 
demand, linking earth and heaven as God’s especial representative, 
the Sabbath and the week have a supreme value in all human affairs. 
But this value is fundamentally and pre-eminently religious. Rest 
from ordinary worldly affairs is a subordinate idea. It has little value 
except as a means to higher spiritual and religious ends. The bless¬ 
ings which come to the physical side of life through rest are much, 
mainly or only, when rest comes through religious sentiment. Irre¬ 
ligious leisure insures holidayism and dissipation. These defeat all 
higher results. But when men give the Sabbath to rest, because it 
is God’s day, because of reverence for Him and that they may commune 
with Him, all their higher interests are served. Spiritual intercourse 
and acquaintance with God are the first and supreme results. Wor¬ 
ship and religious instruction follow. 

Under the behest of religion the ordinary duties of life, its cares 
and perplexities are really set aside, not simply refrained from. Such 
a rest day promotes all that is best; it is not merely a time for physical 
inaction. It raises men into companionship with God and with good. 
It is not burdened with hair-splitting distinctions about what is 
worldly, what may be done, or what may not be done Not “Thou 
shalt not do,” but “I delight to do Thy will, O God,” is its language. 

Nothing less than sacred time can meet such demands. Sacred 
places and sacred shrines cannot come to them as time does. They 
are too far removed from God and too local as to men. They cannot 
speak to the soul as time speaks. Sacred hours are God’s unfolding 
presence, lifting the soul and holding it in heavenly converse. Social 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 621 

worship comes only through specified time. Religious intercourse 
among men, whereby each stimulates the other’s faith and aids the 
other s devotion, is an inevitable result of sacred time and is unattain¬ 
able without it. Sacred time cultivates religious life by spiritual com¬ 
munion, by wholesome instruction and by healthful, spiritual sur- 
loundings. It preserves and develops religious life by continual 
recurrence. 

God drops out of mind when the practical recognition of sacred 
time ceases. The religious sense and religious tendencies disappear 
when the consciousness of God’s presence is lost. On the other hand, 
all that is holiest and best springs into life and develops into beauty 
when men realize that God is constantly near them. The sense of 
personal obligation, awakened by the consciousness of God’s pres¬ 
ence, lies at the foundation of religious life and of worship. God’s 
day is a perfect symbol of His presence, of His enfolding and redeem¬ 
ing love. The lesser blessings which come to men through sacred 
time need not be catalogued here, but it must be remembered that 
these do not come except through sacred time, and that the results 
which flow from irreligious idleness are curses rather than blessings. 
Holidayism is removed from Sabbathism. 

An adequate conception of the problems which surround the Sab¬ 
bath question will not be obtained unless we consider some things 
which prevent these higher views from being adopted. First among 
hindrances is the failure to recognize duration as an attribute of God, 
and hence the Sabbath and the week, as necessary parts of the divine 
and everlasting order of things. Without a recognition of the fact 
that sacred time, as God’s representative, is a necessary result of the 
primal and fundamental relations between God and His creatures, there 
is no adequate basis for a religious rest day, nor for any permanent 
conception of sacred time. If time is but the accident of man’s earthly 
existence, Sabbathism sinks to the plane of a temporary ceremony, or 
a passing rite born of momentary choice, or personal desire. Such a 
conception is too low to awaken conscience or to cultivate spiritual life. 
The absence of this higher conception is the source of the present 
widespread non-religious holidayism, with its long catalogue of evils; 
evils which perpetuate the falsehood—“Let us eat and drink, for to¬ 
morrow we die.” 

Any conception of the weekly rest day which does not recognize 
it as God’s representative in human life, and as growing out of the 
universal relations which men sustain to Him,as earthly, sensuous and 
fatal to religion. Conscience finds no congenial soil in such low 
ground. Growth heavenward cannot take root in the falsehood which 
separates the Sabbath from God and from the life to come. There 
can be no religious rest day without conscience. There is no con¬ 
science where God’s authority is not. God has written this verdict on 
every page of history. 

Another great hindrance is interposed when men emphasize and 
exalt the importance of physical rest as the reason for maintaining Sab- 


622 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


bath observance This is done because the divine element is unrecog¬ 
nized, and in turn the divine element is obscured in proportion as 
physical rest is crowded to the front. This reverses the true order. It 
places the lowest, highest. It exalts the material and temporary above 
the spiritual and eternal, When the physical needs are made prom¬ 
inent, the spiritual perceptions are benumbed and clouded. Upon such 
a basis the obligation to rest is determined by the extent of weariness, 
and the manner of resting by the kind of weariness. This de-sabbatizes 
the rest day and destroys the religious foundation which alone can 
uphold it. Let it be repeated; irreligious resting at the best is holi- 
dayism. It usually sinks to dissipation and debauchery. 

Another decided hindrance to the recognition of the divine ele¬ 
ment in the weekly rest day is reliance on the civil law for the enforce¬ 
ment of its observance. This point is worthy of far more careful and 
scientific consideration than it has yet received. The vital divine ele¬ 
ment in the weekly rest day is eliminated when it is made a “ civil 
institution.” The verdict of history on this point is unmistakable, 
uniform and imperative. Any argument is deceptive and destructive 
if it places the rest day on a par with those civil institutions that spring 
from the relations which men sustain to each other in organized so¬ 
ciety. The fundamental difference is so great that the same treatment 
cannot be accorded to each. Civil institutions spring from earthly 
relations between men. But, as we have seen, duration is so essentially 
an attribute of God, that man’s relations to it and to God are relations 
supremely religious. Hence it is that when civil authority is made the 
ground, or the prominent ground of obligation to observe the weekly 
rest day, the question ceases to be a religious one. It is taken out of 
the realm of conscience and of spiritual relations, and put on an 
equality with things human and temporary. This brings ruin, and 
nothing good can be built thereon by any sort of indirection, or by 
compr®mise. 

Men inevitably cease to keep the Godward side of the question 
in sight, when “the law of the land” is presented as the main point of 
contact. The ultimate appeal is not to Caesar, but to God; to con¬ 
science, not to congress. Here is the fatal weakness of “modern 
Sabbath reform.” History sustains these conclusions with one voice. 
No weekly rest day was ever religiously or sacredly kept under the 
authority of the civil law alone. On the contrary, the religious ele¬ 
ment is always destroyed by the supposed protection of civil law. 
When conscience, springing from the recognition of the divine element 
is wanting, nothing higher than holidayism can be reached. The 
weekly rest day loses its sacredness and its power to uplift and bless 
whenever divine authority and the sanctity which follows therefrom 
are separated from it. 

Another of the higher elements which enter into the weekly rest 
day must be noticed here. The Sabbath is the prophecy of everlast¬ 
ing and perfected rest in the life to come. Heavenly life is the second 
stage in the existence of redeemed men. Secure in the consciousness 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


623 


of immortality, religion is always looking forward to a better time 
beyond. Visions of this eternal Sabbath, untouched by care, undimmed 
by sorrow and filled with delightsome rest, are a part of universal relig¬ 
ion. These are not baseless dreams. They are the most real of real¬ 
ities. Spiritual vision sees them in part while awaiting the hour of 
their fuller revelation. Earthly Sabbaths are the type and the promise 
of eternal rest. They are pulse throbs from God’s heart of love, which 
speed along the arteries of our immortality, assuring us of the rest 
which remaineth for God’s children close beyond the veil that but 
thinly intervenes between the loving soul and the fair city of eternal 
light and joy. Hence it is, that the Sabbath is not sacred because its 
observance is commanded. Its observance is commanded because it 
is intrinsically sacred. It was not created at Sinai, but Sinai was made 
glorious by the presence of Him from whom time and eternity proceed, 
and who there re-announced this representative of Himself and of His 
continued presence among men. A fountain of religion opened to 
satisfy man’s spiritual nature, it is far more than a “memorial of crea¬ 
tion.” It is God’s accredited ambassador at the court of humanity, 
always saying to men, “God is your Father, your Preserver, your Spir¬ 
itual Head, the Bearer of your burdens, the Healer of your sorrows; 
living in Him your salvation is secured and your joy co-eternal with 
your immortality.” 

Before passing to consider a still broader and possible result than 
men have yet considered, it may be well to repeat the conclusions al¬ 
ready reached. 

(a) Duration, eternity, is the attribute of Deity. Time is meas¬ 
ured duration, within which man exists and by means of which he is 
forever living, moving and being in God. It is the divine involucrum 
within which man is created and developed. 

(b) The week, created and bounded by the Sabbath, is a universal, 
perduring, divine cycle of time, ordained to keep God in mind and to 
draw men into spiritual communion with Him. Its order and identity 
are coequal with history and the human race. 

(c) The weekly rest day cannot serve the ends for which it was 
created on any other than a religious basis. That basis is revealed by 
divine command, divine example and human needs, all springing from 
man’s relation to God, to time and to eternity. Christ’s precepts and 
example repeated and intensified God’s example and commandment, 
while His sacrifice magnified and re-established the divine law. 

(d) Our restless, overworked age cries out with deep and religious 
longings for the blessings of the divinely oidained religious rest day. 
All nations and all individuals need these blessings to lead them heav¬ 
enward and to lift them into spiritual childship and communion with 
the Father and Redeemer of all. 

(e) Reliance upon lower considerations and earth-born motives 
increases existing evils, prevents religious development, obscures the 
Godward side of the question, and delays genuine reform. The clos- 
ing decade of the nineteenth century has fully entered a world-wide 


624 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


transition in religious thought, and hence of the Sabbath question, It 
is too early to say in detail what the final readjustment will bring. 

As men rise to this higher, this true conception of time, of the 
week and of the Sabbath, and come to observe it—not as a form, a cere¬ 
mony, a something to be done, but in recognition of their existence 
with and within the Divine One—it is not too much to hope that uni¬ 
versal Sabbatism, religious Sabbatism, according to God’s command¬ 
ment, to continue Sabbatism is neither long nor unnatural. It is rather 
legitimate and ought to be expected. Some could have approached 
this in all ages; but the masses are yet far from it, mainly because the 
treatment of the Sabbath question since the third century of the Chris¬ 
tian era has obscured or destroyed the idea of sacred time. Real Sab¬ 
batism cannot be attained on any ground lower than religious and spir¬ 
itual rest. So long as men think of the Sabbath as a temporary insti¬ 
tution, belonging to one “dispensation,” or to one people, the higher 
conception will not be reached even in theory, much less in fact. Men 
must also rise above the idea that legislation, divine or human, creates 
or can preserve the Sabbath. They must rather learn that the Sabbath 
is a part of the eternal order of things, as essential an element of true 
religion as the sun is of the solar system. It is older than any legisla¬ 
tion and permanent beyond all changes, national or dispensational. 

When men rightly apprehend the divine element in the weekly 
rest day, they do not need the law of the land nor the fiat of the church 
to induce obedience to this blessed provision of their existence, which 
answers their “crying out for God.” Until they do apprehend this 
higher idea, little value is gained and true Sabbatism is unknown. 

What is the final conclusion? It is plain and radical. Since the 
nature of the Sabbath is fundamentally religious, all considerations as to 
authority, manner of observance and future character must be remand¬ 
ed to the realm of religion. Conscientious regard for it as divinely or¬ 
dained, sacred to God and therefore laden with blessings for men is 
the only basis for its continuance. It is not an element of ceremonial¬ 
ism to be performed for sake of a ritual. It is not part of a “legal 
system” to be obeyed under fear of punishment, nor is it to be kept as 
a ground of salvation. It is not a passing feature of ecclesiasticism, to 
be, or not to be, as men may chance to ordain. 

Furthermore, and pre-eminently, it is not a civil institution to be 
enforced by penalties enjoined by jurisprudence It rises far above 
all these. It reaches deeper than any of these It is an integral part 
of the relation which God’s immortal children sustain to Him within time 
and throughout eternity. 

The “morning stars” sang at its birth and the “Sons of God” 
answered with glad hallelujahs. That chorus yet welcomes each soul, 
redeemed through divine love, as it passes from earth’s weariness to 
heaven’s rest, to the true “Nirvana,” the everlasting Sabbath in which 
the world’s greater parliament of religions is yet to convene, to go no 
more out forever and ever. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


625 


The closing decade of this century marks an important epoch of 
transition touching the Sabbath question. Two prominent streams of 
influence have aided in hastening the epoch: One the widespread 
advocacy of the claims of the Sabbath (Saturday), as against the 
claims of Sunday; the other, the rapid decline of regard for Sunday 
and the inability of Sunday legislation, municipal, state, or national, 
to check this growing disregard. We oppose the whole system of 
Sunday legislation, because it is forbidden by the nature and purposes 
of Christ’s kingdom, as enunciated by Him. It had no existence in 
earlier Christianity, apostolic or sub-apostolic. It was the product of 
pagan influence. The first Sunday lav/, 321 A. D., had not the slight¬ 
est trace of Christianity, in word or in spirit. It was issued by the 
emperor as high-priest ex officio of an empire, in which all religious 
laws and ceremonies were state regulations. It spoke only of the 
4 venerable Day of the Sun.’ It was in all respects at one with the 
prevailing legislation concerning the other pagan festivals. If it be 
granted, for the sake of illustration, that Sunday n sacred under the 
Fourth commandment, and ought to be kept in place of the Sabbath, 
the reasons for rejecting Sunday laws are much intensified. The his¬ 
tory of Sunday laws proves this, without exception. The civil power 
from the time of Cromwell’s parliament to the United States Congress 
of 1892 has struggled in vain to save the failing fortunes of this Sun¬ 
day engendered by Puritan and Roman Catholic compromise. We 
mourn over the growing Sabbathlessness in the church and in the 
world. We deplore the errors which have produced it and the evils 
which attend it. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that, in 
attempting to avoid the claims of the Sabbath, Christian men have cre¬ 
ated the influences which have so nearly destroyed Sunday. When 
the church compromises with the law of God until it is rendered nuga¬ 
tory, and appeals to the civil law to support its errors, such results as 
are at hand cannot be avoided. We appeal to Christians and ask that 
the Sabbath question be wholly relegated to the realm of religion and 
conscience, and to the arbitrament of the Bible. Settle it in God’s 
court, not in Caesar’s. 


\ 


40 







Interior of the Free Church, Copenhagen, Denmark 


































XXVIII. 

THE ADVENTISTS. 





Adventists, Second Adventists. 



ELIEVE in the immediate coming of Christ. 
They generally hold to conditional immor¬ 
ality, that the faithful at our Lord’s comin fr 
will inhabit the re-habilitated earth, in a com 
dition of immortal blessedness and that the 
wicked will not be raised. They are some¬ 
times nicknamed “Soul Sleepers.” The 
founder of the sect was William Miller, who 
began to preach the immediate end of the 
world in 1833. Different dates have been 
from time to time assigned as the time of the 
catastrophe. 

There is a branch that repudiates the 
doctrine of the destruction of the wicked, 
and another that observes the seventh day as 
Sunday. The majority of Adventists do 
not fix the date of the second coming. 

There are some 1,800 organizations of all 
divisions with 60,000 members. 

Millerites.—Followers of William Miller, an American pre-millen- 
nialist, or Second Adventist, who expected the immediate return of 
Jesus to reign upon the earth. Believing in the literal fulfillment of 
the prophecies, the Millerites asserted that the first judgment would 
take place in 1843. Subsequently other periods were named; and so 
firm was the faith of many that they disposed of all their worldly 
goods, provided themselves with ascension robes, and waited with 
anxiety for the sounding of the last trumpet—the signal for their ele¬ 
vation. Many became insane through excitement and fear; others, 
finding that they were repeatedly disappointed, gave up their expecta¬ 
tions, and the sect is presumably extinct. 

The doctrines avowed by Miller, and generally accepted by Mil¬ 
lerites, were these: That Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, 
in all the glory of his Father, in the clouds of heaven, and that he 
will then receive his kingdom, which will be eternal; that the saints 
will then possess the kingdom forever, and at Christ’s second com¬ 
ing the body of every departed saint will be like Christ’s glorious 
body; that the righteous who are living on the earth when he comes 
will be changed from mortal to immortal bodies, and with them who 

629 


630 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


are raised from the dead, will be caught up to meet the Lord in 
the air, and so be forever with the Lord; that the saints will then 
be presented to God, blameless, without spot or wrinkle, in love; 
when Christ comes the second time, He will come to finish the con¬ 
troversy of Zion, to deliver His children from all bondage, to con¬ 
quer their last enemy, and to deliver them from the power of the 
tempter, which is the devil; that when Christ comes He will destroy 
the bodies of the living wicked by fire, as those of the old world 
were destroyed by water, and shut up their souls in the pit of woe, 
until their resurrection unto damnation; that when the earth is 
cleansed by fire, Christ and His saints will then take possession 
of the earth, and dwell therein forever; then the kingdom will be 
given to the saints; that the time is appointed of God when these 
things shall be accomplished; that God has revealed the time; that 
many who are professors and preachers will never believe or know 
the time until it comes upon them; that they who are to shine as 
the brightness of the firmament (Dan. xii., 3,) will understand the 
time; that the time can be known by all who desire to understand 
and to be ready for His coming. And Miller taught that some time 
between March 21, 1843, an d March 21, 1844, according to the Jew¬ 
ish mode of computation of time, Christ would come, and bring all 
His saints with Him, and then reward every man as his works shall be. 

“The Origin and History” of this church is given by Mrs. E. S. 
Mansfield. The Advent Christian Church takes its name from a belief in 
the second personal return of Christ to this world. The early Christian 
writers speak of it as an awaited event; but during the middle centu¬ 
ries but little prominence was given it. The Nineteenth Century wit¬ 
nessed a revival of this subject, when a wave of prophetic research 
swept over various parts of Europe, Asia and America almost simul¬ 
taneously. The proclamation, ‘ Behold, He cometh with clouds,’ and 
that speedily, sounded from thousands of pulpits all over the land 
Dr. Joseph Wolf, a converted Jew, became convinced from careful 
prophetic study that Christ would soon come. He began to preach it 
in England in 1821, and from there he went to Asia and through the 
oriental countries, preaching to all classes for twelve years. A great 
interest was awakened in the east, and in 1826 fifty young men, clergy 
and lay, met in Albury, England, for the purpose of studying the 
prophetic Scriptures. Among them were William Cunninghame, Ed¬ 
ward Irving and John Cuming. These meetings continued five years 
and the results were published in three volumes, entitled ‘Dialogues 
on Prophecy.’ About the same time many in America became greatly 
absorbed in the study of prophecy. Among them, William Miller, a 
sturdy farmer, a Deist, became thoroughly converted to Christ, and 
being a profound student of profane history, he was immediately at¬ 
tracted to the study of prophecy as contained in the books of Daniel 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 




and John. Becoming convinced that the Gospel age would soon close, 
and burdened with the subject, he commenced to preach in 1833, and 
thousands flocked to hear him. Mr. Miller’s connection was with the 
Baptist church. 

“With Mr. Miller’s labors commenced the first general awakening 
of the churches in America on this subject. It is estimated that one 
thousand ministers of churches were led to preach Christ’s immediate 
coming, besides the many who came from farm, workshop, mill and 
merchandise, imbued with this judgment message; while those who 
engaged in it were mightily transformed, sanctified, and qualified for 
Christian work as never before. 

“With a following estimated at two hundred thousand it is not 
strange that many of emotional and sensational minds should cause 
fanaticism or undue excitement to largely prevail, greatly to the injury 
of the cause they sought to maintain. 

“ Regardless of press misrepresentation, and the trying ordeal and 
tests which followed, and the dropping off of high-tide adherents, a 
goodly number of trustworthy men and women remained steadfast and 
true to their convictions. From this beginning has developed what is 
known as the Advent Christian Church. With the blessing of God on 
their unceasing toil their numbers have greatly increased, and they 
have gradually"learned the importance of organized and united effort. 
They have no formulated creed, but accept of certain leading truths 
which give them their identity, and upon which, by common consent, 
they all unite, leaving a wide margin for difference in opinion upon 
minor points. A minority favor a definite declaration of faith, but 
the majority adhere strictly to their accepted church, covenant, 
which enjoins ‘Taking the Bible as the only rule of faith, and practice, 
and church discipline,’ making Christian character the only test of fel¬ 
lowship.” , , r a 1 1 -.1 

“There are at least five distinct branches of Adventists, each with 
their separate organizations and publishing interests. All, however, 
hold to the one doctrine which has made them a people, and believe 
in the second personal coming of Christ as an event not far distant. 
Having stated this, we shall speak only of the leading branch which 
this Congress represents, known as the ‘Advent Chiistian Association 

and General Conference of America.’ 

“In this connection there are four publishing societies with houses 
located in Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois and California, besides 
several individual enterprises of greater or less importance. Fi*p m 
these are issued three prominent weekly papers, several monthlies, 
books, pamphlets, tracts, magazines and Sunday-school supplies. It is 
said that more than fifty millions of publications bearing upon special 
subjects of faith have been sent out through the press. This people 
and their message to the world, now on a Scripture basis, are be mg pu 
lished worldwide; and there are doubtless as many of their faith con- 
nected with other denominations of both clergy and lay as are at 
present identified under the name Adventist. Associated with this 


632 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


people a class of ministers and laity, faithful, devoted and earnest, as 
are to be found elsewhere, are engaged in the work. 

A belief in God as the creator of all things, faith in His Son Jesus 
Christ, as the only Saviour for all classes of men, repentance, birth of 
the spirit, reform, sanctification through the word of truth, holiness of 
heart, purity in life, are tenets taught and enforced as indispensable to 
Christian success here, and to a preparation for eternal life in the 
world to come. In addition to these sentiments, which are in common 
with other sects, are some important Bible doctrines which form the 
distinguishing features of the faith of this people. Women are 
recognized and admitted to all conferences as delegates and ministers, 
and receive license papers as such upon real merit. A number have 
been regularly ordained; this, however, is not universal, but optional 
with the local conferences that receive them into membership. They 
are strong and pronounced in favor of temperance, and would indorse 
some prohibitory act in favor of the extermination of the entire 
liquor traffic. 

The distinctive doctrines of adventual faith are set forth in the 
form of essays, read as their presentation papers in the World’s Parlia¬ 
ment of Religions, under the following topics: 

1. “ Basis of Faith,” Rev. W. J. Hobbs, Minneapolis, Minn. 

2. “The Kingdom of God,” Rev. J. W. Davis, Bridgeport, Conn. 

3. “Conditional Immortality,” Rev. Miles Grant, Boston, Mass. 

4. “The Resurrection,” Rev. A. W. Sibley, Mendota, Ill. 

5. “ Extinction of Evil,” Rev. William Sheldon, Brodhead, Wis. 

6. “ Restitution—Paradise,” Rev. Mrs. E.S.Mansfield, Chicago, Ill. 

7. “ Proximity,” Rev. A. J. Wheeler, Concord, N. H. 

“ Basis of Faith,” the first paper, showed that the prophets of the 
Old Testament announce the first and second advent of Christ, and 
that their divinely inspired words were literally fulfilled in His first 
coming. None but a divine being, Jesus Christ, meets the require¬ 
ments of prophecy, and He literally fulfilled them. And it is just as cer¬ 
tain that their prophecies will be fulfilled in His future coming. 

If God so literally fulfilled His word at the first advent of Christ, 
in His birth, life, death and resurrection, and His covenant with the 
Hebrew nation, why not believe He will as literally fulfill His word 
relative to His second advent, and the promises under the New Cove¬ 
nant made with all nations as set forth in the New Testament? The 
apostles proclaimed to Jew and Greek the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 
and predicated the hope of the race upon it, if we are to take their tes¬ 
timony in its literal sense. The hope of seeing Jesus and being made 
like Him has been styled ‘ the blessed hope,’ and has been the com¬ 
fort of the church in all ages. 

The third paper, “ Conditional Immortality,” by the Rev. Miles 
Grant, was a learned document, bristling with proofs of his contention 
that the Bible “ uniformly teaches that only the righteous will live 
eternally, and, therefore, comes the necessary conclusion that Condi¬ 
tional Immortality is a Bible doctrine.” 



THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


633 


The fourth essay on “ Resurrection,” by the Rev. A. W. Sibley, of 
Mendota, Ill., made the following points: 

hirst. The doctrine of a corporeal resurrection of all the dead is 
c early refened to and directly taught in the Old and New Testament 
scriptures. 

Second. In the New Testament the resurrection of the dead is 
ascribed to Chiist Himself as being the agent by which it is wrought. 
(John v, 21; i Cor. xv, 22; Rev. xxii, 11.) 

Third. All the dead will be raised indiscriminately to receive 
judgment according to their works, they that have done good, unto the 
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, ‘unto the resurrec¬ 
tion of damnation.’ (John v, 21-29; 1 Cor. xv, 22; Rev. xx, 11.) 

Fourth. The resurrection will take place at the ‘ last day,’ by 
which is meant the close of the present world. (John vi, 40; ix, 24; 
1 Thess. iv, 15.) 


Fifth. The great event is represented as being ushered in by the 
sound of a trumpet, a representation borrowed probably from the 
Jewish practice of convening assemblies by sound of a trumpet. (1 
Cor xv, 52; 1 Thess. iv, 16.) 

Sixth. The resurrection of Christ was a pledge, a pattern, an 
assurance of the physical resurrection of the sainted dead. 

Seventh. The immortality, eternal life and all the future bles¬ 
sings of the righteous dead are dependent on the corporeal resurrection 
of Christ from the dead. (1 Cor. xv, 17, 18.) 

There is no event of which mention is made in the sacred oracles, 
nor that has ever occurred in human history with which are associated 
such tremendous consequences as that of the anastasis of the dead. 
The eternal life, with all of its environments, will then be reached, and 
a ‘ forever with the Lord ’ experienced. 

Then will the united voices of the redeemed as the sound of 
many waters resound to earth’s remotest bounds in songs of triumph 
and shouts of victory, victory, victory, and all heaven and earth 
respond, Amen. 

The paper on “ Proximity,” by the Rev. A. J. Wheeler, was an elab¬ 
orate argument, based on sacred and secular history and Scripture, to 
prove that the advent of Christ is near. The uppermost and constant 
thought pervading the essay was, “The time is short.” 

“Extinction of Evil,” by the Rev. William Sheldon, took the ground 
that evil is to be extinguished by a stroke of divine power, at the end 
of the Gospel armistice, by utterly exterminating evil-doers, includ¬ 
ing the devil himself; for Christ has arranged that “through death he 
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” 
(Hev. ii, 14.) After citing the testimony of Scripture on the subject; 
he closed by saying: This carries us beyond the chronology of the 
hell taught in the Bible to a time when evil is forever extinct, only 
the good being left; and then the redeemed world will joyfully resound 
the praise of Jehovah forevermore, not a sinner being left alive to in¬ 
terrupt the sacred harmony by his plaintive wails or horrid blasphe- 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


mies. Only praise will be heard when saints only shall be left alive/' 


The secretary says: “The harmony visible in all the papers of 
the day cannot fail to elicit notice. First, that Christ will come per¬ 
sonally and literally at the close of the Gospel Dispensation; second, 
that His coming will precede the resurrection of the dead and the es¬ 
tablishment of His kingdom upon the earth; third, that the resurrec¬ 
tion will precede the general judgment day, which God hath ap¬ 
pointed; fourth, that the judgment must precede rewards and punish¬ 
ment; fifth, that when evil-doers and evil angels are cut off and de¬ 
stroyed, the earth will be restored to a state of original perfection, as 




/ 


/ 


XXIX. 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 




Christian Science. 


RELIGIOUS and theosophical system pro¬ 
pounded about 1866 in Boston by Mary B. G. 
Eddy, and since that time adopted by a 
number of small associations throughout this 
country and in England. The extract below, 
from the pen of one of its adherents, will give 
the best idea of its claims and its tenets: 

“ Christian Science is the explication of 
truth, reducing to human apprehension and 
demonstration the infinite Principle, divine 
Love, God—manifested in the annihilation of 
sin, sickness and death. 

“ Christian Science is Christ-science or 
• Emmanuel-knowledge, and involves the ulti¬ 
mate of all reason, revelation and inspiration. 
This church is built on the spirital interpre¬ 
tation of the Scriptures. 

“ In Christian Science, God is demon¬ 
strated as infinite Love, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent 
Spirit; the only Life, Substance and Intelligence, and man as His 
idea or reflection. This at-one-ment of man with God, Jesus demon¬ 
strated. Christian Science unites science and Christianity, basing its 
scientific character on demonstrable truth. In theology it worships 
God as eternal Love, the universal Father and Mother, thereby 
establishing the brotherhood of man. The scientific creation is the 
infinite expression of infinite love, entirely spiritual. Its medicine is 
the divine Mind. The ultimate of Christian Science is the establish¬ 
ment and recognition of spiritual harmony—to this end it heals the 
sick and sinful as Jesus did. In logic Christian Science is indisputable. 
In demonstration of the power of mind over matter it is mathematical, 
irrefutable and biblical. 

“The foundational truths of Christian Science are—the reality and 
allness of God, the unreality and nothingness of matter, the spirituality 
of man and the universe, the omnipotence of good, the impotence of 
evil. The demonstrative actuality of Christian Science essentially 
distinguishes it from all other religions of the age.” 

637 





P>38 ' 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


AT THE “WORLD’S CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS.’ 

Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy, president of the 44 National Christian 
Scientist Association,” delivered an opening address. He said: The 
ages have had their prophets who foresaw and foretold. The world 
has had its revelators and discoverers, and by them the downtrodden 
and oppressed have been bidden to rise and go forth from the thraldom 
of evil into the liberty of the sons of God! Through these prophets 
and discoverers the light of revelation has reached the dark places of 
earth; ignorance has been forced to yield to intelligence, and the 
physical, moral and spiritual status of mortals has been improved. 
* * * Jesus proved His words by His deeds, and His life was a con¬ 
stant demonstration of the principle He taught thereby, giving evi¬ 
dence that He was the one sent of God to do His work among men, for 
their example. His work was destructive of sin, sickness and 
death. 

In America has sprung up the 44 Great Light,” again conceived and 
brought forth by woman, who has made it possible for all men to come 
to it and be freed from sin, disease and death, the enslavement of per¬ 
sonal material sense, and be renewed in the likeness of the Spirit, God. 
This greater light is Scientifically Christian or Christian Science, a re¬ 
ligion ‘with signs following.’ Wise ones are being guided to it and 
when found it isseentobe of heavenly origin, begotten of the Father, His 
voice of love to men. That it is of God is proven by the hundreds of 
thousands of hopeless invalids who have been raised to health by its 
saving principle, and by the many who have been lifted from the 
misery of sin and its consequences into a knowledge of and obedience 
to God. 

This is an epoch in the history and progress of Christian Science. 
Our beloved cause and leader have been accorded a more deserving 
place in history. Many misconceptions which have obscured the real 
sense of science from the people are disappearing and its holy, benefi¬ 
cent mission is being manifested to sick and stricken humanity. 
People who are searching for the truth are turning more generally to 
Christian Science because it reveals the natural law and power of God, 
available to mortals here and now, as a saviour from sickness and sin. 
As a denomination of Christians our growth has been rapid and wide¬ 
spread and now presents in a large degree all the external aspects of 
useful and successful operation. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


639 


Christian Science was discovered and founded by Reverend 
Mary Baker Eddy, who was born in the town of Bow, N. H. She 
established the “First Church of Christ (Scientist)” in Boston, and the 
MassachusettsMetaphysical College, at which several thousand students 
were taught the principle of Christian Science mind healing. In her 
work “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures;” the sole text 
book of Christian Science, the author says; “No analogy exists between 
the vague hypothesis of Agnosticism, Pantheism, Theosophy, Spirit¬ 
ualism or Millenarianism, and the demonstrable Truths of Christian 
Science.” In this book, the author has also explained the nature of 
her discovery, including the Principle of Christian Science and the 
rules for demonstration. 

It is in the discernment of the real natureand infinity of Spirit, and 
its absolute non-relationship to matter that the originality, truth and 
efficacy of Christian Science consists, and it is this which confers upon 
it the distinction of a great discovery. Not that Truth included in the 
scientific statement is new, for its presentation is by way of discovery 
not of creation; but because it is a new discernment and apprehension 
in the human consciousness of things which are eternal, and this is the 
greatest joy, wonderment and glory that can ever, by any possible 
means, appear unto us, the revelation and true knowledge of God. 

Nearly all men believe in God. They at least believe in a being 
or power or force which they call God. But who or what God is or 
whether He is personal or impersonal, corporeal or incorporeal are 
questions concerning which there is great diversity of opinion, and 
little scientific or demonstrable understanding. The majority of re¬ 
ligious people would say that God is personal without any definite 
opinion as to what personality, as applied to infinite God, means. 

The great need of the world today is, “to know Him whom to 
know is life eternal,” and this need is not met by the substitution of 
human opinion, dogma and beliefs. Man knows nothing of himself 
without this knowledge, for he is made in the image and likeness of 
God. But eye hath not seen Him and material sense cannot give us 
any information concerning the character, attributes or substance of 
the Infinite One. The material sense tells us nothing of natural sci¬ 
ence, so-called, except the material phenomena. If we are confined 
to these senses, we are as ignorant of true Science as we are of God. 
We must learn of God, not through any material sense, but through 
spiritual sense, which alone is and must be our guide. Human intel¬ 
lect and the philosophy of mortal man have exhausted themselves in 
the vain and futile attempt to fathom the mysteries of the Infinite. 
Christian Science, as the words imply, means the knowledge of Christ, 
or the knowledge of what Jesus taught. This Science is as old and 
changeless as God Himself, but interpreted as it is, by our text-book, 
“Science and Health,” we are led along by it, step by step, toward and 
into the knowledge of Him “ in whom we live and move and have our 


' J 



% 


Rev. Alfred Farlow, Kansas City, Mo. 


% 

i 



THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


641 


being. It gives us a new understanding and clearer view of the 
Sciiptures which we receive as the Word of God and upon which all 
Scientists rest. 

The definitions of God as found in the Methodist Episcopal Article 
of Faith, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and our text-book, “Sci¬ 
ence and Health,” page 556, incontrovertibly establish God as All, 
as “Infinite Principle,Eternal Individuality, Supreme Personality,Incor¬ 
poreal Being, without body, parts or passions.” Upon this common 
definitional platform we are content to stand, and to the contempla¬ 
tion of this God we invite all nations, peoples, kindred and tongues. 

The Scientific Statement of Being on page 452 of “Science and 
Health,” gives this primary postulate of Christian Science. There is no 
life, substance or intelligence in matter. All is Mind. If it be a fact 
that all is Mind it precludes the possibility of the existence of matter 
as an integral part of the universe. All agree that Mind is Intelligence. 
There can be no intelligence apart from Mind. Mind or Intelligence 
must be Life. Non-intelligent Life is an impossibility. 

It is admitted that matter is not intelligent; but while this is 
admitted, it is maintained that it is substance and contains life. It is 
not generally maintained that it is Life. The attempted distinction is 
that it contains life. If it were true that it contained life, but was not 
itself life, it would follow as a necessary logical conclusion that the non- 
intelligent can contain the intelligent. Is this possible? If only that 
which is intelligent, or intelligence is Life, it follows by equally inevit¬ 
able logic that the non-intelligent is Lifeless. If matter contains Life 
it must be true that matter is the base of Life. If mankind is the off¬ 
spring of matter—matter being non-intelligent—inert matter must be 
the parent of mankind. Like can only produce like. Then only Life 
can produce Life. Hence, if matter is the base of Life, matter must 
be Life. Is there any escape from this conclusion? 

If material atoms are intelligent and are the base of life, then 
matter must be the creator of all forms of life, and thus matter would 
be God. Can we imagine a grosser pantheism than this? Were this 
true, mortal man would be the only man, and man would be the child 
of dead matter rather than the child of the living God. 

As Christian Scientists we look for the origin of Life in the living 
God, rather than in dead matter. We accept the Scriptural definition 
of His character and refer all Life to Him. The Bible distinctly 
declares Him to be Spirit. If He is Spirit He cannot be matter, either 
in whole or in part. It declares Him to be Love. If He is Love He 
must be Mind. Mindless Love is not conceivable. Nor can Love be 
lifeless matter. It declares Him to be Truth. Can there be Mindless 
Truth; or, can matter be defined as Truth? It declares Him to be all 
and in all; that He fills all space; that He is infinite, eternal, everlast¬ 
ing. If He is these and is Spirit, where in infinity shall be found that 
which is opposite to or apart from Him? 

All revelation teaches that God is Spirit, not cognizable to material 
sense. Is matter, therefore, like unto Him? Spirit is eternal. Can, 
41 


642 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


therefore, anything that is material and finite emanate from or return 
to eternal Spirit? 

Christian Science separates clearly, distinctly and entirely between 
Spirit and matter, Divine Mind and carnal mind, Truth and all evil. 
This new statement of Truth comes not to destroy, but to fulfill every 
jot and little of the law, and to fill full of significance and power all 
the “glad tidings” of “the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ” in both the 
letter and the spirit. It d'spels mystery by removing ignorance and 
misconception regarding that which was always true, but not rightly 
apprehended in human consciousness. If there is perfect and un¬ 
changeable Truth, that must be the Infinite wisdom, the Deific con¬ 
sciousness. Then what Deity knows must be exact, demonstrable 
Truth, Divine’Science, or true knowledge of God, and nothing contrary 
thereto can be true. 

When men fully comprehend this it will be seen that the universal 
God can only be worshiped through one universal religion, or common 
understanding of Him and His laws. 

Christian Science is a universal religion, with a universal Principle 
and capable of a universal practice. Its origin is God, Infinite Mind. 
Infinite Mind is expressed in the Christ. The Christ was never born, 
but was manifest through the human Jesus. Jesus is the pattern for a 
true humanhood. He was, as Christ Jesus, a manifestation of God. 
He knew that Mind was God. This makes His teaching a study of the 
Mind that was in Christ Jesus. Jesus did the will of omniscient God, 
and said, “I and my Father are One.” The Mind which created and 
governed Jesus was the Divine Mind. The Apostle writes, “Let that 
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Mortals have a very 
degraded sense of Mind. The medley of opinions and erroneous and 
sinful thoughts which encumber human consciousness are neither Mind 
nor evidence thereof. It is simply a falsity; it is foolishness with God; 
it is evil, and cannot, by any process now or hereafter, be transformed 
into Truth. Error must be cast out and utterly destroyed before indi¬ 
vidual consciousness shall be in the likeness of God. 

Jesus’ message was from God, and His message was His theology. 
This theology is Divine Science, and antidotes all human theologies. 
All that mortals will ever know of Truth they will know as Jesus knew 
it, by demonstration, revelation or reflection from the infinite Mind. 
The study of His teachings is a Science. Our great Master said, “If 
any man shall do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be 
of God, or whether I speak of Myself.” Scientific Theology is not from 
the human Jesus, but from God. It can all be stated in one sermon, 
but takes eternity in which to completely demonstrate it. The state¬ 
ments of its letter are of the human intellect, but when reason and 
affection are moved by divine love the message is from God, and the 
messenger is sent from God. His theology as set forth in “Science and 
Health with Key to the Scriptures” is being practiced by more than 
one hundred thousand of His loving disciples today. 

There is this one possibility for mankind through the practice of 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


(m 


the scientific theology of Jesus as taught and practiced by the 
students of the Scriptures and “ Science and Health.” It crowns 
every man with the love of the Messiah, makes him a theocrat, a God- 
crowned citizen. It is a practical Christianity. We recognize all that 
is true, honest and pure in all the world’s religions, yet all suggest 
this most excellent way of demonstrating God’s power among men. 
Better the understanding to heal the slightest malady strictly on the 
basis of God as the Principle of Science, than all the material Knowl¬ 
edge of the world. 

There is one study of universal interest, and that is man. How is 
he to be studied? Experience replies, from the testimony given by 
the five senses; and yet such knowledge is at best only relative, and 
can never reveal the absolute facts of being. We are told in the Bible 
that, “ man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. 
He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as 
a shadow, and continueth not.” This relates only to the physical. 
When we come to the moral, the idea of freedom is thought and de¬ 
clared to be impossible of realization. This mortal man is by his own 
confession a prisoner in a house of clay, struggling to realize some¬ 
thing, he knows not what; the seemingly helpless victim of sickness, 
sin and sometimes unmerited misfortune. 

And is this man? Nature as we know her has no answer; human 
reason says I know no other; but above the discords of the senses, 
Divine Science lifts up its voice as the sound of many waters, 
and in the name of Almighty God declares that this is not man; and 
revelation coincides with this declaration and affirms that man is the 
image and likeness of God. 

The ideal brotherhood of man is that state in which the individual 
loves and serves God supremel}/, and loves all mankind with a perfect 
love. This is the only state that can bring peace, and to reach it each 
one must do an individual work. Left to their own resources, mortals 
are in constant strife, socially, politically and religiously. Each 
individual has an opinion as to what is needed to afford harmony and 
satisfaction, but because of conflicting minds many, and the great 
variety of abnormal, carnal tastes, there is little agreement. 

The Divine Mind can and does supply all things. A knowledge 
of this fact changes our desires and affections. If we learn to avail 
ourselves of God’s supply, there will be plenty for all, and no occasion 
for disappointment, contention or want. There will be no occasion for 
strife as to who shall be greatest; for we may all be great, even 
the perfect likeness of a perfect parent. There will be no strife as to 
who will have the greatest possessions for we will all receive in 
perfect fullness from God Himself. There will be no conflicting 
opinions for all will see alike. The very moment mortals touch in 
unison upon the right, there is an agreement, harmony prevails and 
discord ceases. We must each be in harmony with Truth itself, then 

we will be in harmonv with each other. 

A material government with sufficient variety of provisions to 


644 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


meet the demands of a world of individuals with various abnormal 
desires, is an absolute impossibility. Such a government would neces¬ 
sitate myriads of conflicting laws, and would be utterly impractical. 
It is more practical that each individual be conformed to the standard 
of right, than that we devise a government that is adaptable to 
mortals in all their various conditions. 

The Rev. Mary Baker Eddy has given, in her book “Science and 
Health with Key to the Scriptures,” an ample explanation of the cause 
of disease and the method of scientific healing. Jesus’ followers 
eighteen hundred years ago demonstrated that the principle He taught 
was scientific and therefore practicable. The healing of the sick by 
Jesus, according to the infinite will and purpose of God, was neither 
supernatural nor miraculous. Nothing that is done in obedience to 
God can be unnatural. 

Christian Science is the revelation of the Science of the Christ 
mission, and shows that this mission is a complete, perfect illustration 
of the only way in which mortals can overcome the world and the 
evils of every kind that are unlike God, and therefore contrary to God, 
and that separate man in belief from Him. 

It shows that the healing of the sick is a natural phenomenon of 
“Scientific Christianity” or the understanding of Jesus’ teachings. 
This declaration is confirmed by the fact that, as his followers perceive 
and understand the real significance of His work, they are able to man¬ 
ifest that knowledge by healing disease. The healing of the sick in 
compliance with the teachings and command of Jesus was the natural 
phenomenon of primitive Christianity. It was never regarded by 
Jesus or His followers as being miraculous or spectacular or as the 
local intermittent action of God’s will for the limited benefit of a few 
people or for a brief period of time. Jesus said: “Preach the 
Gospel” and “Heal the sick,” and He promised that, “These signs 
shall follow them that believe; they shall take up serpents; and if they 
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands 
on the sick and they shall recover.’* Christian Scientists understand 
and are demonstrating that this command and promise are for all time 
and all mankind. 

Christian Science healing is wholly unlike what is called “Faith 
Cure” or “Prayer Cure.” It is not the operation of a supposed fluctu¬ 
ating capricious interposition of God, but in accord with His infinite 
law. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” referring clearly to the 
universal and infinite nature of the Christ Mind that preaches the Gos¬ 
pel, heals the sick, raises the dead and casts out evils. 

Jesus came to do the will of the Father and destroy the works of 
the devil. He destroyed fear, sorrow and suffering. Even death was 
met and overcome by Him. He expressed God’s will in healing the 
sick and reforming the sinner. 

If we will study the Gospels with special reference to this sub¬ 
ject, it will be found that the “healing of multitudes” was a continuous 
work with Him. He said, “I am the way!” and “Follow thou Me!” 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


645 


and when humanity awakens to the great Truth that has been revealed 
to this age, it will know that this mandate was not outside of the uni¬ 
versal, divine order. If it was ever good to heal the sick as Jesus and 
the early Christians did, through the power of an impartial God, it is 
good now. for God is infinite. If the way of salvation includes the 
healing of the sick, may we not lose the way and limit the possibili¬ 
ties of salvation by assuming that we cannot follow in this way or that 
obedience to this explicit command is sacrilegious? 

The reasons for accepting the Christian Science statement of the 
resurrection of Jesus are: First, because in common with the greater 
part of Christendom it teaches that the historical record of the resur¬ 
rection is trustworthy. There are those who call themselves Christians, 
who say that the resurrection story is a myth. But they think, also, that 
all the miracles are myths, and reject all the supernatural element in 
the Bible. Christian Science has nothing in common with this line of 
thought. 

“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” written by Rev. 
Mary B. G. Eddy, the discoverer, founder and leader of Christian 
Science, which, with the Bible is the sole text-book, teaches unequivo¬ 
cally the historical accuracy of the resurrection. 

Secondly, Christian Science teaches explicitly that all of the 
experiences of Jesus from the time He was placed in the tomb to the 
time that he emerged from it, occurred on this plane of thought, and 
that the body with which He came forth from the tomb was identically 
the same body that was put in the tomb. 

Thirdly, Christian Science teaches that Jesus’ resurrection differed 
only in degree, not in kind, from Jesus’ other miracles. They were 
all designed to prove that Spirit is All-powerful and matter power- 
less. 

Fourthly, the resurrection and all the other so-called miracles 
are divinely natural rather than supernatural. When Jesus came forth 
from the tomb it was not because He had supernatural assistance. He 
was only asserting a great fact of man’s being, viz., that man cannot 
die. He was demonstrating His birthright as a Son of God. He 
proved that the law of man’s nature was Life, and that death was a 
false claimant. Those who maintain that the resurrection and Jesus’ 
other demonstrations over matter were exceptional assertions of God’s 
power, and that they interfered with the natural order of things, are 
forced to admit, that sin, disease and death are natural and that Life, 
Truth and Love are abnormal. Admitting the reality of evil, they 
have to admit that there is another power than God, viz., a god of evil, 
who at present at least shares God’s throne. They also have to account 
for the origin of evil, and how can that be done without impugning 
the benevofence of God? This line of thought leads also to the asser¬ 
tion that man is not entirely a child of God, that he is in part a child 
of the devil. These admissions are paralyzing to spiritual growth, and 
lead us away from the simplicity of Jesus’ Gospel into a never ending 
maze of human speculation. 


646 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Fifthly, we can have part in Jesus’ resurrection now and here, by 
obedience to the law of Spirit and denial of the seeming law of matter. 
According to “Science and Health,” the central thought and efficiency 
of the resurrection was not the mere rising of a physical body from a 
material grave. The Bible records other instances of physical resur¬ 
rection; but as factors in the Christian life, they are not to be compared 
with the resurrection of Jesus. And even as to the physical resurrec¬ 
tion of Jesus, it may be said, that a zealous belief in it may be consistent 
with an un-Christian life. It is evident then, that if we would know the 
secret of the transforming power of the doctrine of Jesus’resurrection, 
we must look elsewhere than at its physical and material aspects. 
This doctrine was very prominent in the Apostles’ preaching. They 
seemed to realize that to this they owed in a large measure the spirit¬ 
ualization of their thought, their control over the lusts of the flesh and 
worldly ambitions, their solid assurance of the great facts of Life, Truth, 
and Love, and deliverance from the beliefs of sin, disease and death. 
The ultimate and ideal of Christian Science is to overcome death in 
the same way that Jesus did, and when we follow His life perfectly we 
shall do it. We do not claim that Christian Scientists have at present 
sufficient spiritual realization to demonstrate over the claim of death 
as Jesus did, but we do claim that we are using Jesus’ method success¬ 
fully in destroying the claims of disease and sin; and in all reverence 
we maintain that that same method faithfully adhered to will enable 
us, at some time, to demonstrate over the claim of death as Jesus did. 
He said that His followers could do all the works that He did and 
greater, and we rest confidently on this promise. 

Christian Science is presented before the world today, the happy 
suppliant for recognition of its claim to be what its name implies, both 
Christian and Scientific; it voices an imperative demand that these two 
be made one henceforth in faith and practice, for otherwise there is 
no satisfactory proof, no final evidence of the validity of the claims of 
either. In no other way than through actual demonstration of Truth 
can mortals learn whether they are obeying God, or their opinions 
about Him. Faith not buttressed by demonstration is always in danger 
of changing to skepticism. It is always possible to change one belief 
for another, the belief in immortality for the belief in annihilation; 
but a demonstrated knowledge of God is planted on a rock and cannot 
be moved. 

The message of Christian Science to the world is, that in propor¬ 
tion as it is understood and demonstrated, the mysteries of religious 
theories and conjecture will be effaced; man’s true relation to God 
will be revealed; sickness and sin will be extinct; “man’s inhumanity 
to man” will disappear and he will “awake in the likeness of God 
(good) and be satisfied.” 


XXX. 

THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH. 




I 


The Reformed Episcopal Church. 


HE Reformed Episcopal Church, holding “the 
faith once delivered unto the saints,” declares 
its belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
and New Testaments as the Word of God, 
and the sole rule of faith and practice; in 
the creed “ commonly called the Apostles’ 
Creed;” in the divine institution of the sacra¬ 
ments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and 
in the doctrines of grace substantially as they 
are set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of 
religion. 

I. This church recognizes and adheres 
to episcopacy, not as of divine right, but as a 
very ancient and desirable form of church 
polity. 

II. This church, retaining a liturgy which shall not be impera¬ 
tive or repressive of freedom in prayer, accepts the Book of Common 
Prayer, as it was revised, proposed and recommended for use by the 
general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, A. D. 1785, 
reserving full liberty to alter, abridge, enlarge and amend the same, 
as may seem most conducive to the edification of the people, “ pro¬ 
vided that the substance of the faith be kept entire.” 

III. This church condemns and rejects the following erroneous 
and strange doctrines as contrary to God’s Word: 

First. That the church of Christ exists only in one order or form 
of ecclesiastical polity. 

Second. That Christian ministers are “ priests ” in another sense 
than that in which all believers are “a royal priesthood.” 

Third. That the Lord’s table is an altar on which the oblation of 
the body and blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father. 

Fourth. That the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper is a 
presence in the elements of bread and wine. 

Fifth. That regeneration is inseparably connected with baptism. 

At the close of its first year the church had 40 ministers, 36 
churches and 3,000 communicants. On June 1, 1885, there were 
bishops, 10; ministers, 61; Sunday-school teachers, 960; Sunday-school 

649 








Rt.-Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., Chicago. 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


651 


scholars, 11,267; communicants, 7,877; church property, $1,009,843. 
The church had synods in New York, Philadelphia, Canada, Chicago, 
and the missionary jurisdictions of the Pacific, of the south, of the 
northwest and west, and the special missionary jurisdiction of the 
south. It had in Great Britain 2 bishops, 13 presbyters, 2 deacons, 17 
parishes, 718 Sunday-school scholars and 418 communicants. 

In the Congress of Religions Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D.. of 
Chicago, said: 

By the Anglo-Saxon race, in the Nineteenth Century, in the 
United States of America, and largely in the city of Chicago, was the 
movement inaugurated which led to the founding of the Reformed 
Episcopal Church. 

The creed of this church is not a cast-iron frame to cramp, but is 
like that elastic portion of a living organism, the finely textured skin, 
which contains but does not compress the human body. 

It can state every article of that creed in the very language of 
Holy Scripture itself, and thus it rests upon the pure teaching of God 
as its one immovable foundation, and not upon the shifting, contra¬ 
dictory and erroneous commandments of men. The Bible, the whole 
Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the basis of the church’s belief. It 
has therefore brought the one hemisphere of truth, embracing the su¬ 
preme sovereignty of God, into unison with the other hemisphere of 
truth, embracing the inviolate freedom of the will of man, in one 
rounded sphere; the teachings of philosophy, experience and the in¬ 
fallible Word. 

President Patton, of Princeton, once said: ‘ Everyman, when he 
prays is a Calvinist, and when he preaches, an Arminian.’ This church 
brings the Calvinist and the Arminian side by side, with heart beating 
over against heart, and says to each ‘ Preach in concert, in love, and in 
power, of the Holy Ghost, this dual truth: Work out your own sal¬ 
vation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both 
to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ 

In that sphere of truth it holds firmly with the Jew, the unbroken 
unity of God, with the Unitarian the oneness of the Divine Being and 
the complete humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ; with the Swedenbor- 
gian the Supreme Deity of Him, who was God manifest in the flesh, 
and with the primitive church, ‘ concluding the same,’ out of the ulti¬ 
mate oracles of truth it holds to the threeness in one of the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost, and thus offers in the divine Trinity ‘ the fullness 
of life, salvation and comfort for man.’ 

It has carefully provided that it shall not have within itself any 
hierarchs to lord it over God’s heritage. The General Council, which 
is the creation of the clergy and laity of the church, has the supreme 
authority in the ratification of the election, and in the consecration of 
its bishops, and these bishops are ever to be held simply as first 
among their equals, the presbyters. 

And above the bishops, as above all else in the church, that Gen¬ 
eral Council rises as the representative of the entire communion, before 
whose legislation and decisions all must bow. 


652 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


Woman, with man, has here been accorded her rightful privileges, 
and brings her counsel and vote to the parish meeting. This church 
is flexible in its polity. It is endeavoring to adapt its methods to each 
unfolding period of time. It will sacrifice neither measures nor men 
to the unyielding rigor of an ecclesiastical system. Denying that any 
special form of church government is an absolutely divine appoint¬ 
ment and yet prizing its historical episcopate, it will be pliant in every 
form of its outward economy, that by all means it may save some. 
The vital truth for which the Congregationalist contends, the virtual 
independence of the local church, is secured in the system which this 
church has adopted. All communicants and stated contributors of 
lawful age have their voice in the election of the local officers of the 
church; and all such communicants a voice in the election of the 
representatives of the church in the General Council. The one great 
feature in the progress of mankind has, therefore, been fully recognized 
—that of mdividuation. 

But parish is bound to parish, even as town to town, and county to 
county in the state, and as each sovereign and independent state is 
bound to state in the glory and union of the United States; and thus 
the church has recognized the other great factor of human progress— 
that of organization. 

Individuation and organization, these grand elements in the prog¬ 
ress of mankind, I venture to say are nowhere so completely manifest 
in a church organization as in the Reformed Episcopal church. Thus 
by its environment, its doctrines, its polity, its broad Christian fra¬ 
ternity, the Reformed Episcopal church, the last born and so the best 
born, is prepared to meet the problems which confront society today, 
and help bring about a practical unity of the various branches of the 
church of Christ. 


XXXI. 

THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH. 



























New Jerusalem Church. 


OLLOWERS of Emanuel Swedberg, son of 
Jesper Swedberg, bishop of Skara, in West 
Gothland. The son was born at Stockholm 
on January 29, 1688. He thought much of 
religion in very early life, and diligently 
studied physics, mathematics and classics at 
the University of Upsal, afterward visiting 
Oxford, Paris, etc. Before leaving the uni¬ 
versity he had been appointed by Charles 
XII. assessor in the Royal Metallic College 
of Sweden, and, in 1719, was ennobled by 
Charles’ successor, Queen Ulrica Eleanora, 
under the name of Swedenborg, by which he 
is generally known. Between early manhood 
and his fifty-eighth year, he actively prose¬ 
cuted his studies in mathematics, physics,etc., 
publishing various works, as the Opera Philo- 
sophica et Mineralia (in 1733), in three volumes, 
and the Philosophy of the Infinite (in r 734). In April, 1745, being at an 
inn in London, Swedenborg considered that he had a vision of the 
Lord, who called him to a holy office, opened his sight to the spiritual 
world, and endowed him with the gift of conversing with spirits and 
angels. In August he returned to Stockholm, commenced the study 
of the Hebrew scriptures, resigned his assessorship in 1747, and spent 
the remainder of his life in forming and propagating his theological 
views. He died in London in his eighty-fifth year, March 29, 1772, in 
Great Bath street, Coldbath Fields, and was buried in the Swedish 
Church in Ratcliff Highway. His system is presented at length 
in his various works, especially his Arca?ia Ccelestia (8 vols., London, 
1749-1756). He believed that he was several times allowed to enter 
heaven, “ which was arranged in streets and squares like earthly cities, 
but with fields and gardens interspersed.” There was a magnificent 
palace with a temple in the midst, with a table in it, and on the table 
the Word of God, with two angels by its side. The form of angels 
was altogether like that of men. Matter and spirit are connected by 
an eternal law. He accepted only twenty-nine of the Old Testament 

8 655 



656 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


books, rejecting Ruth, i and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 
Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Of the New 
Testament he accepted only the Gospels and the Apocalypse. He 
held that there is a double sense in Scripture, the most important being 
the spiritual. He believed in one God and in the Trinity, and that the 
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was that God; that Jehovah Himself 
became incarnate as the Word. Heaven and hell are not places, but 
states, and the devil is not a person, but a name of hell. The judg¬ 
ment on the first Christian church took effect in 1757, and was seen by 
Swedenborg in the spiritual world, after which, and in lieu of it, the 
New Church, called in Revelation (xxi., xxii.) New Jerusalem, 
descended from heaven. Swedenborg himself founded no churches. 
His followers publicly associated themselves as a congregation in 
Eastcheap in 1788. In 1810 a Swedenborgian society was established, 
and a missionary and tract society in 1821. Congregations exist in the 
United States, England, on the continent of Europe, etc. 

There were, in 1890, in this country 87 churches with 7,095 mem¬ 
bers, and something more than 100 organizations in the rest of the 
world. 



XXXII. 

THE MORMONS 



Latter Day Saints. 


[E popular name for the members of a religious 
body calling themselves “ The Church of Jesus 
Christ, of Latter-day Saints,” or more briefly, 
the Latter day Saints. Their founder was 
Joseph Smith, a farmer’s son, born in Sharon, 
Windsor county, Vt., December 25, 1805. He 
asserted that on September 21, 1823, as he was 
praying, a supernatural light shone in his room, 
and anangel appearing made revelations to him, 
and next day gave him certain engraved plates, 
with an instrument called the Urim and Thum- 
mim(cf. Exod. xxviii., 30; Lev. viii., 8), by the 
aid of which he translated them, publishing 
the result in 1830 as the Book of Mormon. On 
this, the Rev. Mr. Spalding, a Presbyterian 
preacher, declared that, having some time be¬ 
fore written a work of fiction which no publisher could be induced to 
print, his rejected “ copy” had been lost or stolen, and had reappeared 
as the angelically revealed Book of Mormon. To silence Spalding, 
both the faithful and the unbelievers clamored for a sight of the plates. 
After eight of the former had obtained a look at them, Smith asserted 
that he had handed them over to the custody of an angel, and they 
were seen no more. On April 6, 1830, the first Mormon church was 
founded in the town of Layette in Seneca County, N. Y. Others 
followed in quick succession. Persecution driving the Mormons from 
place to place, in 1839 they settled in Illinois, and commenced to build a 
city. This was called Nauvoo, and was adorned with a fine temple. 
On June 24, 1844, Smith was arrested and imprisoned in Carthage jail 
on a charge of treason and sedition ; and on the 27th he and his 
brother Hyram were shot dead by a mob which broke into the jail. 
Brigham Young was appointed to succeed him as prophet and revela- 
tor. In 1847 he removed with many Mormons to a secluded valley 
called that of the Salt Lake, afterward ceded to the United States. 
The industry of the Mormons soon made it like a garden ; but when it 
was found to be exactly on the route to the Californian gold diggings 
it ceased to be secluded, and it is now peopled by more gentiles than 

659 































































































































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


661 


Mormons. On October 17, 1874, Brigham Young was convicted by the 
United States Court of polygamy and imprisoned ; and on January 26, 
i 877 > J°h n D. Lee, a Mormon bishop, was executed for participation 
in a cold blooded massacre of a caravan of immigrants twenty years 
before. 

Mormonism.—The tenets or practice of the Mormons. They be¬ 
lieve in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. They hold the doctrine 
of the Trinity, the atonement, baptism by immersion, the Second 
Advent, and the restoration of Israel ; they deny original sin. They 
recognize Joseph Smith and his successors as prophets and revelators; 
they claim for some of their number miraculous gifts, and considered 
polygamy lawful prior to an edict from the head of the church against it. 

The anti-polygamous Mormons, organized before polygamy was 
abandoned, as their name implies, repudiate polygamy. They are 
scattered in different parts of the country, chiefly in the west. They 
number more than 100,000 members. 

The Mormons accept the doctrines written by Joseph Smith in 
1842: 

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus 
Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 

We believeThat men will be punished for their own sins and not 
for Adam’s transgression. 

We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may 
be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. 

We believe that these ordinances are: First, Faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the 
remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy 
Ghost. 

We believe that a man must be called of God, by “ prophecy and 
by laying on of hands,” by those who are in authority to preach the 

Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. r 

We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive 
church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pastors, teacheis, evangelists, etc.. 

We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, 
healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. 

We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is trans¬ 
lated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word 

We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, 
and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important 

things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 

We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration 
of the ten tribes; that Zion will be built upon this continent, that 
Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be 

renewed and receive its paradisaic gloiy. .... ~ , ,. 

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according 
to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, 
let them worship, how, where or what they may. 



662 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magis¬ 
trates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. 

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and 
in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the 
admonition of Paul: “ We believe all things, we hope all things,” we 
have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. 
If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, 
we seek after these things. 



XXXIII. 

THE SALVATION ARMY. 



Salvation Army and Volunteers. 



RELIGIOUS organization virtually constitut¬ 
ing a distinct religious sect, its founder and 
general being Mr. William Booth, born at 
Nottingham, England, in 1829. In 1843 he 
entered the ministry of the Methodist New 
Connection, which stationed him in London. 
Soon afterward he obtained great spiritual 
success at Guernsey, and in 1844 was set apart 
as an evangelist. In 1856—57 he returned to 
the regular pastorate, but felt himself out of 
his sphere; and when, in 1861, the conference 
refused to allow him again to become an evangelist, 
he resigned connection with it, and commenced an 
independent career. A year before this, Mrs. Booth had 
begun to preach. In 1862-63 he labored in Cornwall, 
Newcastle, etc., and in June, 1865, in Whitechapel, Lon¬ 
don, where he obtained many converts, whom he united 
into the East London Christian Revival Society, afterward the East 
London Christian Mission. Visits to other cities and towns commenced 
the work also there. In 1865-66 Mr. Booth hired a large theater, and 
in 1870 the People’s Market at Whitechapel. By the commencement 
of 1878 30 stations had been occupied; at its close there were 
80, and the evangelists had increased from 30 to 127. The first 
appearance of the title, Salvation Army, in the registrar-general’s 
returns was in 1880. With the name, Army, came military phrase¬ 
ology. Prayer became knee-drill, the leader became a general, one 
of his sons chief of the staff, evangelists took the name of officers, 
candidates were cadets, and not merely converts were sought, but 
recruits. A semi-military attire was assumed, barracks built instead 
of separate residences, and when the Army marched forth to take 
some place by storm, it was with banners displayed and bands 
of music leading the march. Its possession of the streets was 
not undisputed, especially in the earlier part of its career. Religious 
soldier-life was open to women, and many female officers conducted 
evangelistic operations. The progress of the Army was very rapid. 

665 



666 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


The amount of property owned by this organization now exceeds 
$4,000,000, and the annual income is over $3,600,000. The division of 
the Army in this country in 1893 had 1,695 officers, 536 corps, II slum 
posts, 5 rescue homes, and 3 food and shelter depots. They publish a 
paper called the War Cry , one edition in New York city and another 
on the Pacific coast, with a combined circulation of 90,000. 

The platform of belief on which the Salvation Army wages its war¬ 
fare with sin declares that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa¬ 
ment were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute 
the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice; that there is only one 
God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver and Governor of 
all things; that there are three persons in the Godhead—the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence, co-equal in power 
and glory, and the only proper object of religious worship; that in the 
person of Jesus Christ the divine and human natures are united, so that 
He is truly and properly God, and truly and properly man; that our 
first parents were created in a state of innocence, but by their disobe¬ 
dience they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence 
of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as 
such are justly exposed to the wrath of God; that the Lord Jesus 
Christ has by His suffering and death, made an atonement for the 
whole world, so that whosoever will may be saved; that repentance 
toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the 
Holy Spirit, are necessary to salvation; that we are justified by grace 
through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that he that believeth hath 
the witness in himself; that the Scriptures teach, that not only does 
continuance in the favor of God depend upon continued faith in, and 
obedience to Christ, but that it is possible for those who have been 
truly converted to fall away and be eternally lost; that it is the privi¬ 
lege of all believers to be “ wholly sanctified,” and that “ their whole 
spirit and soul and body” may “ be preserved blameless unto the com¬ 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is to say, that after conversion 
there remains in the heart of the believer inclination to evil, or roots 
of bitterness, which, unless overpowered by Divine grace, produce 
actual sin; but that these evil tendencies can be entirely taken away 
by the Spirit of God, and the whole heart thus cleansed from everything 
contrary to the will of God, or entirely sanctified, will then produce the 
fruits of the Spirit only, and that persons thus entirely sanctified may, 
by the power of God, be kept unblamable and unreprovable before Him. 
They believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the 
body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal 
happiness of the righteous; and in the everlasting punishment of the 
wicked. In 1896 a schism occurred between the British and the Amer¬ 
ican Salvationists, the latter forming an independent body called the 
Volunteers. 


XXXIV. 

MINOR CHRISTIAN SECTS. 



♦ 


I 


Minor Christian Sects. 




nature. 


CEPHALI.—Applied to those who, on occasion 
of a dispute which arose in the Council of 
Ephesus, A. D. 431, refused to follow either 
John of Antioch, or Cyril of Alexandria. 

The name was applied, in the fifth and 
sixth centuries, to a large section of the fol¬ 
lowers of the Monopohysite, Peter Mongus, 
who cast him off as their leader because of 
his accepting a peaceful formula called the 
Henoticon. They soon afterwards split into 
, ^ three parties, the Anthropomorphites, the 

Barsanuphites, and the Essianists, who again gave 
© origin to other sects. 

> Agnoetae.—A sect called also Agnoites and Themis- 

tiani, which flourished in the sixth century. They main¬ 
tained that the human nature of Christ did not become 
omniscient by being taken into conjunction with the Divine 
They were deemed heretics, and their tenets misrepresented. 
They soon died away. ( Mosheim: Church History , Cent, vi., pt. ii., ch. 
v, § ix, Note.) 

Albigenses.—A sect which is believed to have sprung from the 
old Paulicians of Bulgaria, and which received the further names of 
Bulgarians, or Bougres; Publicani, or Popolicani (Pauliciani cor¬ 
rupted); Cathari, meaning pure; and Los Bon Homos , signifying good 
men. They are supposed to have arrived in Italy from the east in 
the eleventh century, and in the twelfth they spread to the south of 
France In most respects they held primitive Scripture doctrine, 
though, in the opinion of many, with a tinge of Manichaeism. They 
had the courage to carry out their religious convictions when the 
Church of Rome was in the plenitude of its power. In a more general 
sense: All the so-called heretics in Languedoc, whatever their origin, 
who imitated the Albigenses in casting off the authority of the Church 
of Rome. Against these of every name a crusade was let loose by 
Innocent III. in A. D. 1209, and when it had done its work the further 
suppression of the sect was handed over to the Inquisition.— {Mo- 
sheim: Church History .) 

669 





670 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Abecedarians.—These were an offshoot of the German Anabaptists, 
about 1520. They held to direct inspiration from God as the source 
of all truth, and that human learning intercepted the stream of Divine 
knowledge. They insisted that as the alphabet is the foundation of 
all knowledge the religious teacher need not know his A, B, Cs. 
Hence their name. Their religious teachers were frequently the most 
ignorant men. This folly was copied by some of the earlier Method¬ 
ists and others who derided human learning, not deeming it neces¬ 
sary to the religious teacher. 

Almericiary.—These people originated their peculiar ideas in the 
thirteenth century. They held that God, the Father, swayed the moral 
universe until the end of the Mosaic dispensation; the Son for 1,200 
years after His incarnation, and that in the thirteenth century the Holy 
Ghost began to govern the world. Then all ceremonies and external 
acts of worship were abolished, and salvation was accomplished by 
the internal operation of the Holy Spirit. God spoke in all men, 
and heaven and hell are only in this life. Their existence as a sect 
was not for long. 

Alogians.—A sect which arose toward the end of the second cen¬ 
tury. They denied that Christ was the Logos, rejected John’s Gospel 
and the Apocalypse, and considered that the miraculous gifts men¬ 
tioned in the New Testament had ceased to exist in the church. 

Amsdorfians. (From Nicholas Amsdorf.)—A German Protestant 
sect in the sixteenth century who, with their chief, are said to have 
maintained that good works are not only unprofitable, but are obsta¬ 
cles to salvation. Amsdorf made this assertion in the heat of con¬ 
troversy, and does not seem to have meant much more by it than to 
enforce the teaching of the Apostle Paul, “that a man is justified by 
faith without the deeds of the law.” (Rom. iii., 28). 

Anthropomorphites.—A sect which arose in Egypt, A. D. 395, 
and became prominent in the fifth century. They were a subdivision 
of the Acephali, who again sprang from the Monophysites or Euty- 
chians. They held Anthropomorphism in a gross form. Many indi¬ 
viduals also in the Church Catholic, and in the sects which had sprung 
from it, entertained a similar belief.—( Mosheim: Ch. Hist., Cent, v., pt., 

11., ch. v., § 20.) 

Antinomians.—Those who hold tenets opposed to the authority 
of the moral law or Ten Commandments revealed in Scripture. From 
the apostolic times downward individuals misunderstanding the doc¬ 
trine of justification by faith “without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 

111., 21, 28), have tended to Antinomianism (Rom. vi., 15). 

“That doctrine that holds that the covenant of grace is not estab¬ 
lished upon conditions, and that nothing of performance is required 
on man’s part to give him an interest in it, but only to believe that he 
is justified; this certainly subverts all the motives of a good life. But 
this is the doctrine of the Antinomians.”— (South: Sermons , vii., 195.) 

The sect originated with John Agricola, a companion of Luther, 
about the year 1538. He is said to have held that as the church is 
not now under the law, but under the Gospel, the Ten Commandments 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


671 


should not be taught to the people. Enemies said that he or his fol¬ 
lowers considered that a believer might sin at his pleasure, but this is 
believed to have been a calumny.—( Mosheim .) 

Aquarians.—Christians in the primitive church who used water 
instead of wine in the Lord’s Supper. Some of them did so from 
holding sentiments like those now entertained by total abstainers, 
while others, employing wine at the evening communion, used water 
in the morning one, lest the smell of wine might betray their assem¬ 
blies to persecuting foes. 

Arians.—Followers of Arius, presbyter of Alexandria in the fourth 
century, A. D., or one holding the system of doctrine associated with 
his name. During the first three centuries of the Christian era, what 
was subsequently called the doctrine of the Trinity had become the 
subject of controversy, chiefly in one direction; it had been decided 
against Sabellius that there are in the Godhead three distinct persons, 
whereas Sabellius had, in effect, reduced the three to one. In the year 
317, Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, having publicly expressed his 
opinion that the Son of God is not only of the same dignity as the 
Father, but of the same essence, Arius, one of the presbyters, con¬ 
sidered this view as leaning too much to Sabellianism and, rushing to 
the other extreme, he declared that the Son of God was only the first 
and noblest of created beings, and though the universe had been 
brought into existence through His instrumentality by the Eternal 
Father, yet to that Eternal Father He was inferior, not merely in 
dignity, but in essence. The views of Arius commended themselves 
to multitudes, while they were abhorrent to still more; fierce contro¬ 
versy respecting them broke out, and the whole Christian world was 
soon compelled to take sides in the struggle. Constantine, the first 
Christian emperor, was then the reigning sovereign, and after he had 
failed by private means to restore peace and unity, he summoned a 
council to meet at Nice, in Bithynia, which it did in A. D. 325. It 
was the first general council and the most celebrated of all. It 
declared Christ to be homoousios , i. e. of the same essence as the Father, 
whereas Arius regarded Him as only homoiousios , of similar essence. 
The erring presbyter was deposed and exiled; but his numerous follow¬ 
ers maintained his doctrine, and were at times so successful that each 
party had in turn the power, of which it had no scruple to avail itself, 
of using carnal as well as spiritual weapons against its adversaries; 
indeed, it is believed that Arius himself died by poison. The doctrines 
regarding the relation of the three Divine Personages, authorita¬ 
tively proclaimed at Nice, were at last all but universally adopted. 
They were held almost without a dissentient voice through the Middle 
Ages, and were cordially accepted by the leading reformers. The 
Churches of Rome, England and Scotland are all at one with regard 
to the doctrine of the Trinity, as are also the most powerful bodies of 
English Non-conformists. 

Arminians.— Followers of Arminius, or ir\ other words, of James 
Harmensen, first a Dutch minister in Amsterdam, and afterward 
professor of theology in Leyden University. The views of himself 


672 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


and his followers were summed up in five points, which may be 
briefly stated thus: i. 1 hat God from all eternity predestinated 
to eternal life those who He foresaw would have permanent faith in 
Christ. 2. That Christ died for all mankind, and not simply for the 
elect. 3. That man requires regeneration by the Holy Spirit. 4. That 
man may resist Divine grace. 5. That man may fall from Divine 
grace. This last tenet was at first held but doubtfully; ultimately, 
however, it was firmly accepted. Arminius died in the year 1609. In 
1618 and 1619 the Synod of Dort condemned the Arminian doctrines, 
the civil power, as was the general practice of the age, enforcing the 
decrees of the council by pains and penalties. [Remonstrants.] 
Nevertheless the new views spread rapidly. Archbishop Laud intro¬ 
duced them into the Church of England; the Wesleyans also are essen¬ 
tially Arminians; while the remainder of the English Non-conformists 
and the Presbyterians are mostly Calvinists. 

Calixtines.—A Christian sect in Bohemia, the more moderate of 
the two great sections into which the Hussites were divided in 1420. 
Unlike the Taborites—the other and extremer section—they did not 
seek to subvert the constitution and government of the Church of 
Rome, but demanded (1) the restoration of the cup to the people in 
the celebration of the Supper; (2) the preaching of the Gospel in 
primitive simplicity and purity; (3)the separation of the priests from 
secular, and their entire devotion to spiritual, concerns; and (4) the 
prevention or punishment, by lawful authority, of “moral” sins, e. g., 
simony, debauchery, etc. The council of Basle, in 1433, t° en d 
the disastrous Bohemian war, invited envoy from the Hussites. 
Procopius Rasa—their leader since the death of the famous John 
Ziska in 1424—and others appeared, but the effort failed. After¬ 
ward the council sent ^Eneas Sylvius into Bohemia. He, by con¬ 
ceding the use of the cup to the Calixtines, reconciled them to the 
Church of Rome. 

Christians.—The Christians began to exist as an organized sect, 
about 1800, in North Carolina, Kentucky and Vermont. They are 
usually denominated Christians. They are evangelical in their gen¬ 
eral doctrines, but have no creed but the Bible, and no head but 
Christ. They were divided into north and south wings during the 
civil war. They number 1,424 societies and 103,000 members. 

The Christians hold that God is the rightful arbiter of the uni¬ 
verse, the source and fountain of all good; that all men have sinned 
and come short of the glory of God; that with God there is forgive¬ 
ness; but that sincere repentance and reformation are indispensable to 
the forgiveness of sins; that man is constituted a free moral agent,and 
made capable of obeying the Gospel; that through the agency of the 
Holy Spirit, souls, in the use of means, are converted, regenerated, and 
made new creatures; that Christ was delivered for our offences and 
raised again for our justification; that through his example, doctrine, 
death, resurrection, and intercession, he has made salvation possible to 
every one, and is the only Savior of lost sinners; that baptism and 
the Lord’s Supper are ordinances to be observed by all true believers; 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


673 


and that baptism is the immersing of the candidate in water, in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; that a 
life of watchfulness and prayer only will keep Christians from falling, 
enable them to live in a justified state, and ultimately secure to them 
the crown of eternal life; that there will be a resurrection of both the 
just and the unjust; that God has ordained Jesus Christ judge of the 
quick and dead at the last day; and at the judgment, the wicked will 
go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life 
eternal. 

Collyridians.—A sect toward the close of the fourth century, so 
denominated from the little cakes which they offered to the Virgin 
Mary. The sect consisted chiefly of Arabian women, who, out of an 
extravagant devotion to the Virgin, met on a certain day of the year 
to celebrate a solemn feast, and to render divine honor to her as a god¬ 
dess, eating the cakes which they offered in her name. 

Cononites.—A sect of Tritheists founded by Conon. The Tri- 
theists were divided into Philoponites and Cononites, the Cononites 
maintaining that the matter only, and not the form of the body, was 
corruptible, and to be resuscitated, while the Philoponites thought 
both would be so. 

Corrupticolae.—A Christian monophysite sect in the sixth century, 
who maintained that the body of Christ was corruptible. From some 
of them, and particularly from Themistius, a deacon of Alexandria, 
and Theodosius, a bishop of that city, sprang the Agnoetae, who affirmed 
that while all things were known to the Divine nature in Christ, some 
things were unknown to His human nature. These views are generally 
held in the modern churches, but a peculiar point about the Agnoetae 
was that they combined with those opinions the other one, that Christ 
had but a single nature. 

Daleites (See Glassites).—They originated in 1790. They placed 
more stress on holiness than the Independents. They merged into Con¬ 
gregationalism. 

Docetae.—A name applied to those heretics in the early ages 
of the church who maintained that Christ, during His life on earth, 
had not a real or natural, but only an apparent or phantom-like body. 
The bolder Docetae assume the position that Christ was born without 
any participation of matter; they denied accordingly the resurrection 
and the ascent into heaven. The milder school of Docetae attributed 
to Christ an ethereal and heavenly, instead of a truly human body. 
Among the Gnostics and Manichaeans this opinion existed in its worst 
type, and it has been held since the Reformation by a small fraction of 
the Anabaptists. 

Donatist—A sect of schismatics in Africa, the followers of Dona- 
tus, bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia. The sect rose in A. D. 311, 
when Caecilianus was elected bishop of Carthage, and consecrated by 
the African bishops alone, without the concurrence of those of Numid¬ 
ia. The Donatists held that Christ, though of the same substance 
with the Father, yet was less than the Father; they also denied the 
infallibility of the church, which they said had fallen away in many 
43 


674 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


particulars. At the end of the fourth century they had a large number 
of churches, but soon after began to decline, owing to a schism among 
themselves. They were finally suppressed in the sixth century by Pope 
Gregory the Great. 

Ebelians.—A revivalist sect which arose in Konigsberg, Prussia, 
about A. D. 1836, the Archdeacon Ebel and Dr. Diestel being its 
leaders. They believed in spiritual marriage. In 1839 sentence was 
passed against their leaders, who were charged with unsound doctrine 
and impure lives, but it was removed in 1842. Their enemies called 
the sect Muckers, i. e. t in German, Hypocrites. (Hepworth Dixon , etc.) 

Ebionites.—A Christian sect consisting of those Jewish converts 
who considered the Mosaic law as still binding. In the first century 
they were in communion with their fellow Christians, whether these 
were more liberal-minded Jews or converts from some Gentile faith. 
In the second century they withdrew from communion with the rest of 
the church, and formed a sect called Nazarenes or Ebionites. Then 
the Nazarenes and the Ebionites became distinct sects, the latter being 
the more extreme of the two, they believing Jesus to have been a mere 
man. They admitted, however, that He was an ambassador from God, 
and Himself possessed of Divine power. They not merely observed the 
Mosaic law, but superadded all the traditions of the Pharisees. They 
limited the number of the apostles to twelve, to leave no room for 
St. Paul, to whom they felt antipathy for having refused to impose the 
yoke of the Mosaic ritual upon the Gentile churches.—( Mosheim: Ch. 
Hist., cent, iii.) 

Encratites.—A rigid sect which arose in the second century. It 
was formed by Tatian, an Assyrian, and a follower of Justin Martyr. 
Agreeing in most respects with the general church, he is still accused 
of corrupting the faith by adding to it a mixture of the oriental phil¬ 
osophy. He insisted on the essentially evil character of matter, and 
the consequent necessity of mortifying the body. He lived in cel¬ 
ibacy, fasted rigorously, and used water instead of wine in the Lord's 
Supper. In addition to the name Encratites (abstainers), he and his 
followers were called Hydroparastatae (water drinkers) and Apotac- 
tatae (renouncers). 

Also the name assumed in the fourth century by certain Mani- 
cheans—in no way connected with Tatian—to shield them from the 
penal laws directed against the sect to which they belonged. 

Erastianism.—An ardent Protestant, he believed it unwise that the 
churches which had separated from Rome should excommunicate any 
of their members, or even pass upon them lesser kinds of censure. If 
a church member committed a crime, the punishment should be 
inflicted, not by the ecclesiastical authorities, but by the civil magis¬ 
trate; if he fell into sin as distinguished from crime, the church with 
which he agreed in doctrine should not expel him or even alienate 
his affections by heavily censuring his conduct. His tenets were 
committed to writing in A. D. 1568, but were not published till after 
his death. At length, however, Castelvetro, who had married Erastus’ 
widow, gave them to the world in 1568, under the title Explicatio 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


675 


Quoestioms gravis suruv de Excornmunicatione. The opinions of Erastus 
regarding excommunication were unsuccessfully advocated in the 
Westminster Assembly of 1643 by a small party, of whom Selden was 
chief. 

In modern ecclesiastical controversy the term Erastianism has 
been held to designate the opinions now stated regarding the border¬ 
land between church and state. This was the signification attached to 
the term in the controversy which resulted in the disruption of the 
Scottish Establishment in 1843. In 1845, however, the Rev. Robert 
Lee, afterward professor of biblical criticism in Edinburgh University, 
re-edited an English translation of Erastus’ theses made in 1669, and 
showed that the evidence on which he was assumed to have held the 
views called after him was scanty and insufficient. They perhaps 
existed in his work in germ, but in germ only. 

Evangelical Alliance.—An alliance first suggested at a conference 
held in Liverpool, England, in October, 1845, an d inaugurated at a 
series of meetings in London, between August 17 and September 2, 
1846. The following nine tenets were adopted as the basis of union: 

1. The divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy 
Scriptures. 

2. The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation 
of the Holy Scriptures. 

3. The unity of the Godhead, and the Trinity of persons therein. 

4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the 
Fall. 

5. The incarnation of the Son of God, His work of atonement for 
sinners of mankind, and His mediatorial intercession and reign. 

6. The justification of the sinner by faith alone. 

7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctifica¬ 
tion of the sinner. 

8. The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the 
judgment of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal bless¬ 
edness of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked. 

9. The divine institution of the Christian ministry, and the obli¬ 
gation and perpetuity of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s 
Supper. 

The Evangelical Alliance is not a federation of various churches; 
it is composed of individual Christians connected with different de¬ 
nominations. 

Family of Love.—A Christian sect founded about A. D. 1546 in 
the Netherlands by Henry Nicolai, or Nicolas of Munster, who, in the 
latter years of Edward VI. passed over to England and joined the 
Dutch Church in London. He regarded himself as a chosen servant 
of God by whom a new revelation was to be made to the world. He 
considered doctrine as of little importance, but the possession of piety 
and love all in all. His followers, though as a rule quite moral, were 
cheerful to an extent which gave offense to some. In 1575 they laid 
a confession of their faith before parliament, and applied unsuccess¬ 
fully for toleration. In 1580 Queen Elizabeth and her council made 


676 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


an effort to suppress them. They were denounced by proclamation, 
and their books ordered to be burned in October, 158°* Q n 1604 and 
1645, Blunt says that “ familists were extreme Antinomians. Strype 
mentions two sections of them, the Family of the Mount, and the Fam¬ 
ily of the Essentialists, who denied the existence of sin. There was 
thus gross immorality among them, and Penn and Baxter speak in 
severe terms of their excesses.” ( Blunt: Dictionary of Sects, etc.) 
Among those who wrote against them were Henry More and George 
Fox, the founder of the Quakers. They were also called Pamilists. 

Fifth-Monarchy Men.—A portion of the Puritans in 1653 an d 
subsequently, who felt it their duty to destroy cathedrals and univer¬ 
sities, and to be governed by the law of Moses in lieu of all other laws. 
Their mottoes were, “Christ the Fifth-Monarchy,” “Long live King 
Jesus.” They believed that a fifth universal monarchy would be 
established on earth under the personal reign of Jesus (the four pre¬ 
ceding monarchies having been those of Assyria, Persia, Greece and 
Rome), and that no single person ought to rule mankind until His 
coming, but that in the meantime, civil government should be provis¬ 
ionally administered by His saints. 

“ Fifth-Monarchy Men shouting for King Jesus, agitators lecturing 
from the tops of tubs on the fate of Agag.— {Macaulay: Essay on Milton.) 

Attempting to occupy London in 1661 they were defeated and 
their leader, Venner, and ten others were executed for high treason. 

Free Church of England.—An evangelical Protestant denomina¬ 
tion founded on the basis of recognizing only two orders, the first 
being presbyters, and the second deacons. “Nevertheless, the first 
order is divided into two distinct offices, viz., bishops and presbyters. 
This church maintains the ecclesiastical parity of presbyters, whether 
episcopally or otherwise ordained.” ( Declaration by Convocation of F. C. 
of England, 1846.) The governing body is the Convocation, consisting 
of all the clergy and laity in the several churches. The impulse which 
gave the church birth was communicated by the Tractarian movement 
of 1832. 

Glassites.—A Christian sect founded by the Rev. John Glas, 
minister of the Established Church of Scotland. Having been deposed, 
in 1729, by the Synod of Angus, he founded the sect called after his 
name. With regard to faith, he believed it to be an intellectual act 
of assent to the Divine testimony. In 1753 Mr. Sandeman, his son-in-law, 
embraced his opinions, carrying them to a more extreme length. In 1760 
the son-in-law removed to London, and in 1764 to America. Being 
better known in these places than Mr. Glas, the churches were called 
Sandemanian. 

Gnosticism.—A system of philosophy professedly Christian, 
devised to solve the great questions, such as the origin of evil, which 
have perplexed the ablest minds in every age. Gnosticism accepted 
beliefs in an eternal God of infinite power, wisdom and goodness. 
The granting of this postulate at once brought the gnostic face to face 
with the question, Why, then, did this Great Being allow evil to arise 
in the universe when it was in His power to have prevented it? If 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


677 


He did not prevent it, was He not to a certain extent responsible for 
its existence? The same difficulty had centuries before created the 
dualist system of Zoroastrianism which, denying the omnipotence 
of the one Supreme Being, assumed the existence of two, a good 
and a bad one, about equal in power, and in continual conflict. 
This view, derived from Persia, was partially adopted by some 
gnostics, while others of the sect, or aggregation of sects, drew 
on the later Platonism of Alexandria for their inspiration. There were 
then two classes of them; the Syrian, and the Alexandrian or Egyptian 
gnostics. In certain tenets both agreed. Matter was eternal and from 
the first essentially evil; there was then no bygone time when “ the origin 
of evil ” took place. Nor was the world created by the Supreme 
Being; it was framed by an exalted spirit, called, in consequence, the 
Demiurge, whom many identified with the God of the Jews. He had 
shining qualities, but was selfish and arrogant. He wished men to 
worship, not the Supreme Being, but himself. The former was the 
purest Light, and pervaded that boundless space which the Greeks 
called pleroma. He did not remain forever alone, but brought into 
existence two holy and happy spirits of different sexes, called TEons, 
from whose marriage came others of the same order, till there was a 
whole family of them in the pleroma. The chief of these TEons was 
Jesus Christ, who was sent to the world to win it back from the Demi¬ 
urge to its proper allegiance. Many gnostics held what were called 
Docetic views. The germs of gnosticism existed in the first century; 
it did not, however, reach maturity till the reign of Adrian in the sec¬ 
ond. Of the Syrian gnostics there were Saturninus, of Antioch, Cerdo, 
Marcian, Lucian, Severus, Blastes, Bardesanes, Tatian, etc.; of the 
Egyptian, Basilides of Alexandria, Valentinus, etc. The system had a 
good deal declined by the third century, but was not extinct till about 
the sixth. It has been disputed whether there are allusions to either 
nascent or fully developed gnosticism in the New Testament. Some 
writers profess to find them in such passages as Col. ii., 8; i Tim. i., 4, 
vi., 20; 2 Tim. ii., 16, 17; Titus iii., 9; and there appears to be one to 
Doceticism in 1 Johni., 1-3. 

Hattemists.—A sect which sprung up in Holland in the seven¬ 
teenth century. Hattem is said to have denied that the death of Christ 
was an expiatory sacrifice, and affirmed that in His teaching He simply 
signified to us that there was nothing in us which could offend God, 
and in this way He made us just. Also, that God punishes men by 
their sins, not for their sins. The sect afterward discarded the first 
name of Hattemists. (. Mosheim: Ch. Hist., ch. xvii., sect, ii, pt. ii, § 36.) 

Heracleonites.—A sect of gnostics, founded in the second cent¬ 
ury by Heracleon, a follower of Valentinus. Heracleon taught 
that a monad was the original source of all things, that from the 
monad sprang two beings, and from these the aeons emanated. He 
published a ‘‘Commentary on the Gospel of St. John,” fragments of 
which have been preserved by Origen. 

Hermesianism.—The method of religious inquiry taught by George 
Hermes, born near Munster, April 22, 1775. In 1819 he became pro- 


678 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


fessor of theology at Rome, where he died May 26, 1831. Hermes com¬ 
bined with the Roman Catholicism, to which he was sincerely attached, 
a strong tendency toward philosophy. He was of opinion that reason 
must first be exercised in establishing a Divine revelation and the 
claims of the Church of Rome infallibly to interpret its teaching. 
Reason then itself required an implicit acceptance of all the doctrines 
of the church. These views he published, in 1819, in an Introduction to 
Christian-Catholic Theology. His old students and other admirers, who 
were numerous, adopted his method, with the result that they tended 
to move, not toward, but away from the church, in consequence of 
which, the Pope, on September 26, 1835, issued a brief against Hermes’ 
work, which was held to be or infidel tendency. 

Hoffmanist.—A follower of Daniel Hoffman, professor of theol¬ 
ogy at Helmstadt, who in 1598 maintained that there was a twofold 
truth, if it could be so called, one philosophical, the other theological, 
and that philosophical truth was falsehood in theology. Owen Gun¬ 
ther, John Caselius, Conrad Martini and Duncan Liddel, philosophers 
of his university, joined issue with him. and finally Henry Julius, Duke 
of Brunswick, compelled him, in 1601, to retract his opinions. ( Mosheim ). 

Huguenots.—A nickname formerly applied by the Roman Cath¬ 
olics to the Protestants of France, who were nearly all Calvinists, and 
who converted the appellation into one of honor instead of reproach. 
D’Aubigne believed that the Reformation began in France in A. D. 
1512, while that of Switzerland commenced in 1516, and that of Ger¬ 
many in 1517. For a time France seemed as likely as the other two 
countries to adopt Protestantism. Though Margaret, the sister of 
Francis I., had favored it, yet that king had been strongly against it, 
at least during the latter part of his reign, as were Francis II. and 
Henry II. It arose among the people, and through their sympathy 
became so formidable, that when, in 1561, a year after the accession 
of Charles IX., the Huguenots were prohibited from preaching, they 
took up arms to achieve religious liberty. The chief seat of their 
power was in the south and west of France, that of the Catholics in 
the north and east. With an occasional hollow truce, or an interval 
of peace as hollow, the struggle went on for the next century and a 
quarter. Its two most notable incidents were the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, August 24, 1572, and the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, October 22, 1685. The name Huguenot has not been perma¬ 
nent. Those so called were afterward denominated Reformed or 
simply Protestant. 

Plussites.—The followers of John Huss, who was born of humble 
parents at Hussinatz in Bohemia, about A. D. 1370, and became priest 
in 1400. Huss was a realist in philosophy, and adopted the views of 
Wycliffe, whose works he translated, giving great offense to the 
Archbishop of Prague. Huss appeared by citation before the Council 
of Constance, and, though provided with a safe-conduct from the 
Emperor Siegmund, or Sigismund, he was adjudged a heretic, and 
burned alive July 6, 1415, as was his disciple Jerome of Prague, on 
May 30, 1416. By the decision of this council, the request of the 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


679 


Bohemian laity to communicate under two kinds was refused. The 
treatment of Huss exasperated his followers, and led to a religious 
war in which great ferocity and cruelty were manifested on both sides. 
The Hussite leaders were John Ziska, or Zizka, and after his death 
Procopius. Sigismund commanded the imperial forces. The Hussites 
fortified a mountain near Prague which they called Mount Tabor. 
Ziska was victorious in thirteen pitched battles and a hundred engage¬ 
ments and sieges though, losing his second eye by an arrow, the first 
having been destroyed in his youth, he had to lead without the gift of 
sight. He died October 12, 1424, soon after he had obtained religious 
liberty for Bohemia. Before this the Hussites had begun to split into 
minor sects, as the Orebites, or Horebites, the Orphanites and the 
Calixtines. In 1433 the Calixtines were conciliated by the concession 
of the cup to the laity. By the treaty of 1435, Siegmund was 
acknowledged king of Bohemia, which, however, remained in an uneasy 
state. The Hussite troubles prepared the way for the Lutheran refor¬ 
mation. 

Infralapsarians, Sublapsarians.—Less rigid Calvinists who held that 
God, having permitted but not foreordained the fall, then decreed the 
salvation of the elect by means of a Redeemer. He was thus not in any 
way responsible for the introduction of evil into the world; what he did 
was to provide the remedy. The Infralapsarians were opposed by the 
Supralapsarians. The question was debated chiefly in the early part 
of the seventeenth century. 

Jerkers, Barkers, are of no particular theology, but manifest an 
ignorant fanaticism at camp meetings, jumping, shouting, dancing, 
barking, etc. 

Libertines.—A Flemish sect of Antinomians, who called them¬ 
selves Spirituals. They passed into France, where they were 
patronized by Margaret of Navarre, sister of Francis I. They held 
that, as God was the author of all human actions, no human action 
could be evil; that religion consisted in union with God by contem¬ 
plation, and that any one who had attained to this could act as he 
pleased. Calvin wrote strongly against them.— (Blunt.) 

Manichseism.—The religious system founded by Mani or Manes, 
who either claimed to be or was regarded by his followers as the Para¬ 
clete promised by Jesus (John xiv., 16, 17). The system is Dualism, 
tempered with Gnosticism rather than a lapse from primitive Christian¬ 
ity. Mani postulated two primal beings, Light (God), and Darkness, 
under the similitude of kingdoms, and from the latter Satan and his 
angels were born. Adam owed his being to Satan. Continual conflict 
exists between the two kingdoms, and when the Kingdom of Light is 
victorious, the world will be destroyed by fire, and the supremacy of 
God established. The ethics of the system were severely ascetic. The 
Manichseans were divided into two classes—the “ elect ” and the 
“ hearers." The former were bound to observe the three seals: (1) Of 
the mouth, forbidding animal food, the use of wine and milk, and 
impure speech; (2) of the hands, forbidding the destruction of life, 
whether animal or vegetable; and (3) of the bosom, forbidding (prob- 


680 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


ably) marriage (certainly offspring), since woman was regarded as 
the gift of the demons. The hearers were less strictly bound. The 
Old Testament was rejected, and only so much of the New taken as 
suited the peculiar tenets of the sect. They had a kind of hierarchy, 
fasting was practiced, and among the later Manichaeans rites existed 
analogous to baptism and the eucharist. The sect spread rapidly in 
the East, extended to northern Africa, where the persecution of the 
Vandals in the latter part of the fifth century stamped them out, and 
to southern Europe, where some of their tenets reappeared later in 
the doctrines of the Paulicians, and later still in those of the Albigenses. 

Melchite.—Royalists; a name given to those Greek Christians in 
the East, who, after the Council of Chalcedon (fourth general, A. D. 
451), remained orthodox, following the example of the Byzantine 
court. As they followed Constantinople at this juncture, in remaining 
in communion with the West, so they cast in their lot with that patri¬ 
archate when the Greek schism took place. The Melchites retain their 
own rites, and in 1865 their number was estimated at about 35,000. 
—(Addis and Arnold.} 

Men of Understanding.—A sect founded by yEgidius Cantor, an 
illiterate man, and William of Hildenissen, who was a Carmelite and 
better instructed. The sect was first discovered in Brussels in 1411. 
They trusted for salvation to Christ alone, and denied that confession 
and voluntary penance were necessary to salvation. With these tenets 
were combined some mystic views that a new law of the Holy Spirit 
and of spiritual liberty was about to be promulgated. They may have 
been a branch of the sect called Brethren of the Free Spirit.—( Mo - 
sheim: Church Hist., Cent, xv., pt. ii., ch. v., §4.) 

Montanism.—The religious system of Montanus, who, about 171 
A. D., proclaimed himself the Paraclete or Comforter promised by 
Jesus, and professed to utter prophecies. He multiplied fasts, forbade 
second marriages, did not permit churches to give absolution to those 
who had fallen into great sin, forbade all female ornaments, required 
virgins to be veiled, and would not sanction flight in persecution. He 
was ultimately expelled from the church. Tertullian, in the year 204, 
joined the Montanists, but did not forfeit the respect of the Church 
Catholic, as the Montanists held the fundamental doctrine of Chris¬ 
tianity, and differed from others more in their rigid practice than in 
their faith. The Montanists continued till about the sixth century. 

Moravians or United Brethren.—A religious sect, called at first 
Bohemians, and constituting a branch of the Hussites, who, when the 
Calixtines came to terms with the Council of Basle, in 1433 refused to 
subscribe the articles of agreement, and constituted themselves into a 
distinct body. Their tenets were evangelical. In 1522 they made 
advances to Luther, who partially recognized them, but they ultimate¬ 
ly adopted Calvinistic views as to the Lord’s Supper. Their discipline 
was very strict. They supervised the conduct of their members in 
their private or secular affairs, as well as in their ecclesiastical rela¬ 
tions. They refused to bear arms. Driven by persecution, they scat¬ 
tered abroad, and for a time their chief settlement was at Fulnek, in 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


681 


Moravia, whence they were called Moravian Brethren, or Moravians. 
On May 26, 1700, was born Nicolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf, 
son of the chamberlain and state minister of Augustus II., elector of 
Saxony and king of Poland. From early life the son was devoted 
to religion, his piety being of the mystic type. Having met with 
a Moravian refugee, who told him of the persecutions to which his sect 
was exposed in Austria, Count Zinzendorf offered him and his co¬ 
religionists an asylum on his estate. The man, whose name was David, 
accepted the offer, and in 1722 settled with three other men, at a 
place called by Zinzendorf Herrnhut. Under his fostering care the 
sect greatly increased in strength, and were often called, from 
their place of settlement, Herrnhutters. Till his death on May 9, 
1760, he traveled largely, spreading their views. Small Moravian 
churches arose on the continent, in England, in Ireland, and in Amer¬ 
ica. Though they have never been numerous, yet in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century and the beginning of this, they acquired great 
reputation from having a larger proportion of their membership 
engaged in foreign missions than any Christian denomination since 
apostolic times. In 1890 there were 3,731 organizations and 202,474 
members. 

The United Brethren in Christ seceded from the Moravians in 1755. 
They believe in the only true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; 
that these three are one, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, 
and the Holy Ghost equal in essence or being with both; in Jesus 
Christ, that He is very God and man; that He became incarnate by 
the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary, and was born of her; that He is 
the Savior and Mediator of the whole human race, if they, with full 
faith, accept the grace proffered in Jesus; in the Holy Ghost, that He 
is equal in being with the Father and Son, and that He comforts the 
faithful and guides them into all truth; that the Holy Bible, Old and 
New Testaments, is the Word of God; that it contains the only true 
way to our salvation; that every true Christian is bound to receive it 
with the influence of the Spirit of God, as the only rule and guide; 
that without faith in Jesus Christ, true repentance, forgiveness of sins, 
and following after Christ, no one can be a true Christian; that the fall 
in Adam and the redemption through Jesus Christ shall be preached 
throughout the world; that the ordinances, namely, baptism and the 
remembrance of the sufferings and death of Christ, are to be in use and 
practiced by all Christian societies, but the manner of which ought 
always to be left to the judgment of every individual. The example 
of washing the saints' feet is left to the individual judgment. 

Muckers.—A sect of German mystics, belonging chiefly to the 
aristocracy, founded at Konigsberg, about 1830, by two Lutheran 
clergymen, Diestel and Ebel. They professed great purity of life, but 
grave charges of immorality were brought against them, and in 1839 
the founders were degraded from their office and sentenced to a term 
of imprisonment. On appeal, in 1842, they were reinstated, and the 
sentence quashed. 


682 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Muggletonians.—A sect founded by Lodowick Muggleton (1610- 
1698), the son of a farrier in Bishopsgate street, London. He was a 
tailor, and when about forty years old began to have visions and to 
hear voices, and asserted that he and John Reeve, another tailor, 
were the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation xi., 3. Their 
chief doctrines were that the distinction of Persons in the Trinity is 
merely nominal; that God has a real human body, and that when He 
suffered on the cross He left Elijah as His vicegerent in heaven. The 
Divine Looking-glass was published in 1656 as an exposition of their 
teachings, and in 1846 some members of the sect, which is now nearly, 
if not quite, extinct, subscribed to republish it. 

Nazarites.—A man or woman set apart by a vow for the service of 
God, either for a definite period or for life. The hair was allowed to 
grow, the fruit of the vine in any shape was forbidden, and no Naz- 
arite might approach a corpse. The “ law of the Nazarite ” is given at 
length in Numbers vi., 1-21. Samson (Judges xiii., 5), Samuel (1 Sam. 

1., u),and John the Baptist (Luke i., 15) were Nazarites. From Amos 

11., 11, 12 it may be gathered that persons so dedicated to God had 
an organization like that of the prophets, and among the later Jews 
the vow was developed (1 Mac. iii., 49; Acts xviii., 18; xxi., 23, 24). 

Novatianism.—The doctrine taught by Novatian, a stoic of the 
third century, who, it is said, was delivered from demoniacal possession, 
became a catechumen, and was ordained priest. In A. D. 251 he per¬ 
suaded three country bishops to consecrate him, and according to 
Fleury, became the first anti-Pope. He consecrated other bishops and 
sent them to various parts to propagate his views—that it was wrong 
to receive again into the church those who had sinned gravely after 
baptism; that the church had no power to absolve the lapsed, and 
that second marriages were sinful. Novatianism lasted about two hun¬ 
dred years and then dwindled away. 

Old Catholics.—The name assumed by a body of German priests 
and laymen who refused to accept the dogma of Papal Infallibility, 
and, in consequence of its definition, formed themselves into a separate 
body. It was essentially a university movement, for the German 
bishopswhohadleft Rometo avoid voting—Hefele among the number— 
afterward submitted. Van Schulte, a professor at Prague, published a 
formal protest; then came the Nuremberg protest of “ Catholic pro¬ 
fessors” (August 1870). Father Hyacinthe’s “Appel aux Eveques” 
followed in La Liberta early in 1871, and (March 28) Dr. Dollinger set 
forth his reasons for withholding his assent “ as a Christian, a theolo¬ 
gian, an historical student, and a citizen.” Dollinger and Friedrich 
were immediately excommunicated. 

The first synod (1874) made confession and fasting voluntary; the 
second (1875) reduced the number of feasts, and admitted only such 
impediments to marriage as were recognized by the state; the third 
(1876) permitted priests to marry, but forbade them to officiate after 
marriage. This prohibition was annulled by the fifth synod (1878), 
and, in consequence, Friedrich, Reusch, and some others withdrew. 
Congregations of Old Catholics exist in Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzer- 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


683 


land, France, and Mexico, but their numbers are small. In Germany 
they seem to be dwindling away, but the protest of Dollinger and his 
fellows will remain an important landmark in religious history. 

Peculiar People.—A Protestant sect of recent origin, found mostly 
in Kent, England, and to a less degree in other counties round London. 
They recognize no sacraments or creeds, and claim to be the real ex¬ 
emplars of true and undefiled religion. They accept the exhortation 
of St. James (v., 14, 15) in a strictly literal sense, and this has more than 
once led to a verdict of manslaughter being returned against some of 
their members by a coroner’s jury. (.McClintock & Strong.) The 
analogue of this sect in this country is to be found in the Faith-curists. 
The name apparently has reference to 1 Pet. ii.,9. 

Pelagians.—The followers of Pelagius, a monk, probably of Welsh 
origin, first in high repute for genius, learning and piety, who, going to 
Rome about A. D. 400, proceeded some five years later to promulgate 
new views regarding original sin and free grace. He was the great 
opponent of St. Augustine, but there are two reasons why the teaching 
of Pelagius cannot be exactly ascertained: First, it is gathered chiefly 
from the writings of his adversaries; second, he was willing to accept 
orthodox language, provided he might interpret it in his own fashion. 
Blunt enumerates the following as his chief errors: 

1. The denial of original sin, and, as a necessary consequence, 
its remission in baptism. 

2. The denial of the necessity of grace. 

3. The assertion of complete free will. 

4. The possibility of a perfectly sinless man. 

5. The existence of a middle state for infants dying unbaptized. 

6. That Adam’s fall injured himself only, and not his posterity. 

7. That neither death nor sin passed upon all men by the fall of 
Adam. 

Plymouth Brethren.—A body which arose almost simultaneously 
in Dublin and Plymouth, about 1830, and, as they called themselves 
“The Brethren,” outsiders came to know them as “ Plymouth Brethren,” 
from the town where they had fixed their headquarters. Their chief 
founder was a lawyer, named Darby, who had taken orders. Their 
communities are of what is known as the Evangelical Calvinistic type, 
and many of them maintain that only among themselves is true 
Christianity to be found. They have no regular ministry, every 
brother being at liberty to prophesy or preach whenever moved to do 
so. They baptize all adults, whether previously baptized or not, and 
observe the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper weekly. They are rigid 
Predestinarians and expect the Millennium. 

Priscillianist.— 1. A name sometimes given to the Montanists, 
from the name of one of the two women (Priscilla and Maxilla) who 
joined Montanus, and professed to have the spirit of prophecy. 

2. The followers of Priscillian, bishop of Avila, in Spain, in the 
fourth century. They were condemned by a synod at Saragossa in 380, 
but lingered on till after the Council of Braga, in 563. 

“The Priscillianists came very near in their views to the Mam- 



684 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


chaeans. For they denied the reality of Christ’s birth and incarnation; 
maintained that the visible universe was not the production of God, 
but of some demon or evil principle; preached the existence of aeons, 
or emanations from God, . . . condemned marriages, denied the 

resurrection of the body, etc.”— Mosheim: Eccles. Hist. (ed. Todd), 
p. 170.—[Heretic, II. 1.] 

Quietism.—The doctrine that the essence of true religion consists 
in the withdrawal of the soul from external and finite objects, and its 
quiet concentration upon God. It is a form of mysticism, and has 
been held by individuals in the church in all ages. In the fourteenth 
century it attracted notice in connection with the Hesychasts. The 
term was specially used to describe the views advocated by Miguel de 
Molinos, a Spanish priest, who settled in Rome in 1669 and 1670, 
under the patronage of Cardinal Odeschalchi, afterward Innocent XI. 
In 1676 he published his Gnida Spirituale (Spiritual Guide), which was 
soon afterward translated into Italian, French, Latin and English. O11 
August 28, 1687, the Inquisition condemned sixty-eight propositions 
in his writings, and on November 20 he was imprisoned for life, and 
died December 28, 1697. Among his followers was a Barnabite, 
Francois de la Combe, who instructed Madame Guyon. In 1694 a 
commission, with Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, at its head, condemned 
thirty errors in her writings. She was defended by Fenelon, bishop 
of Cambray, whose writings in turn were condemned in 1699 by Pope 
Innocent XII., and retracted by their author. It was believed that 
the Quietist doctrine tended to disparage the external observances of 
religion and substitute the authority of the individual for that of the 
church. In another direction, also, quietism in some cases tends to 
Antinomianism. 

Restitutionists.—A religious sect which has recently sprung up in 
New England. They believe that what man lost in the fall is now 
beginning to be restored, and that everything is to come back to its 
original form and purity. Their Sabbath, therefore, occurs on Satur¬ 
day, as the original day of worship; and their meetings are held Friday 
evening, because it is Sabbath eve. 

Sabellianism—The doctrine of the adherents of Sabellius (an 
African presbyter of the third century, if not of Sabellius himself.) 
It resolved the doctrine of the Trinity into three manifestations 
of God to man, and taught that the same person was the Holy Ghost 
when manifesting himself to the Christian church, and, by parity of 
reasoning, the Son, when he appeared in Christ. Thus Patripassianism 
was avoided, but the Incarnation as well as the Trinitv, was denied, 
for the manifestation of God in Christ could differ only in degree, not 
in kind, from his union with other holy men. Akin to this teaching 
was that of Marcellus (bishop of Ancyra in the early part of the 
fourth century), who made the Logos a mere attribute of God, mani¬ 
festing itself in the creation, the incarnation, and the sanctification of 
Christians. 

Sabianism.—A faith which recognized the unity of God, but wor¬ 
shiped angels or intelligences supposed to reside in the stars and 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


685 


guide their motions, whence the lapse, at least on the part of the com¬ 
mon people, to the worship of the stars became easy. They had 
sacrifices and sacred days, and believed in a future state of retribution. 
They were once numerous in Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and their 
sacred books were in Syriac. The early Mohammedans did not rank 
them with polytheists. 

Sandemanians.—The followers of Robert Sandeman, who, in the 
latter part of the eighteenth century, introduced into England and 
America the doctrine of the Glassites. The body is not numerous. 
They have a weekly communion, and dine together every Lord’s day, 
admit new members with a kiss of charity, abstain from blood, wash 
each other’s feet, and each member is bound, to the full extent of his 
income, to support his church and the poor. 

Scotism.—A branch of scholasticism, named after its founder, 
Johannes Duns Scotus, a distinguished Franciscan friar, who taught in 
the schools at Oxford, Paris and Cologne, where he died in November, 
1308. Scotism was a more pronounced form of Realism than Thom- 
ism, and taught that the species is numerically one, assigning to each 
individual a hceccitas —something which gives individuality apart from 
matter; that the created will is the total and immediate cause of 
its own volition; that the creation of the world and immortality of the 
human soul are not demonstrable by human reason; that the opinion 
that the Virgin Mary never contracted original sin is the “more prob¬ 
able;” and that an action is not necessarily good or bad, but may be 
indifferent. 

Seekers.—“ He [Sir Henry Vane] set up a form of religion in 
a way of his own, yet it consisted rather in a withdrawing from 
all other forms, than in any new or particular opinions or 
forms; from which he and his party were called Seekers, and 
seemed to wait for new and clearer manifestations. * * his friends 

told me he leaned to Origen’s notion of an universal salvation of all, 
both of the devils and the damned, and to the doctrine of pre-exist¬ 
ence.”— Buniet: History Own Time (ed. 1822), i., 279. 

Shakers.—A name given to an American sect of celibates of both 
sexes, founded by Ann Lee, an English emigrant, about 1776, from 
their using a kind of dance in their religious exercises, but who call 
themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appear¬ 
ing. Their chief settlement is at Mount Lebanon, in the state of New 
York. Their foundress was called the Elect Lady, and Mother of all 
the Elect, and claimed to be the woman mentioned in Rev. xii. The 
Shakers profess to have passed through death and the resurrection into 
a state of grace—the Resurrection order, in which the love which leads 
to marriage is not allowed, and are known as brothers and sisters. 
They abstain from wine and pork, live on the land and shun towns. 
They cultivate the virtues of sobriety, prudence, and meekness, take no 
oaths, deprecate law, avoid contention, and repudiate war. They affect 
to hold communion with the dead, and believe in angels and spirits, 
not as a theological dogma, but as a practical fact. 


m 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


There are fifteen communities all in this country with some 
1,700 members. 

The Shakers inculcate: 

1. Purity in mind and body, including a virgin life, as exemplified 
and inculcated by Jesus Christ as the way that leads to God. 

2. Honesty and integrity in all words and dealings, according to 
the precepts of the Savior: “As ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so unto them.” 

3. Humanity and kindness to both friend and foe, “ Charity never 
faileth,” “ Love is the fulfilling of the law,” “ Overcome evil with 
good.” This rule comprehends the proper conduct toward all ani¬ 
mals. 

4. To be diligent in business, serving the Lord! All labor with 
their hands according to strength and ability; all are to be industrious, 
but not slavish. Idleness is the parent of want and vice. 

5. To be prudent, economical, temperate, and frugal, but not par¬ 
simonious. 

6. To keep clear of debt; owe no man any thing; give love and 
good-will. 

7. United and consecrated interest in all things; but none are re¬ 
quired to come into it except voluntarily, for this order is the result 
of mutual love and unity of spirit; it cannot be supported where the 
selfish relation of husband, wife, and children exists. This order is 
the greatest and clearest demonstration of practical love. “ By this 
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for 
another.” 

8. All are suitably provided for in health, sickness, and old age; 
all being equally of the one “ household of faith.” 

Indeed, to sum it all up, to seek and practice every virtue, without 
superstition, is the leading tenet of the Shaker profession. “ Add to 
your faith, virtue.” 

Simeonites.—A name given in England to the followers of the 
Rev. Charles Simeon (1758-1867), Vice-provost of King’s College, 
and Vicar of Trinity Church, Cambridge. He was distinguished for an 
impassioned evangelicalism in language, sentiment and doctrine that 
at first roused bitter opposition, but his influence increased, and from 
about 1793 he gathered around him a number of young men, chiefly 
undergraduates, whom he sought to indoctrinate with his opinions, 
which he also endeavored to perpetuate by establishing the Simeon 
Trust, for the purchase of cures of souls to which men holding evan¬ 
gelical views were to be appointed. 

Sionites.—A small sect which arose in Norway in the first half of 
the eighteenth century. They embroidered the word Sion with 
some mystical characters on their sleeves, and endeavored to establish 
a community, which should be the germ of the kingdom of Sion. In 
the reign of Christian VI. (1730-46), the community was dissolved by 
legal process. 

Southcottians.—The followers of Joanna Southcott (1750-1814), 
whose circumstances were so poor that she had to become a domestic 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


687 


servant She had strong religious feelings, and, till about the age of 
forty, was a member of the Methodist body. In 1792 she professed to 
receive revelations, which she published in 1801-3. These were partly 
in prose, but chiefly in doggerel. From that time to her death the 
number of believers in her pretensions largely increased. These were 
by no means confined to the uneducated classes, and they made such 
provision for her as enabled her to live in considerable style. In 
return for their offerings her followers received seals—papers 
which purported to number them with the mystical “hundred and 
forty-four thousand ” of the Apocalypse (vii., 4). In 1813 Joanna an¬ 
nounced that she was about to become a mother, that the child would 
be miraculously conceived, and would be the Shiloh (Gen. xlix. 10) in 
whom the Millennium was to be established. She died Dec. 27, 1814, 
and on her tombstone, in Marylebone churchyard, is an inscription fore¬ 
telling her reappearance. Shortly before her death, the Rev. J. T. 
Foley, rector of Old Swinford, on her behalf, announced to her fol¬ 
lowers that she had received a heavenly command that they were not 
to assemble for worship till after the birth of Shiloh, but to attend 
Protestant churches. In 1825 Charles William Twort pretended to be 
the Shiloh, and another imposter, George Turner (whose followers 
were called Turnerites), arose about the same time. The last leader of 
the Southcottians was John Wroe, of Bowling, near Bradford. He 
claimed prophetic gifts, and taught that the Second Advent was at 
hand. His adherents, who are called Christian Israelites, are much 
stronger in Australia (where Wroe died in 1863) than elsewhere. 

Supralapsarians.—Calvinists who hold that God for His own glory 
eternally decreed the fall of man and the consequent introduction of 
sin into the world, and that the election of some to everlasting life, 
with the rejection of others, was formed “ beyond ” or before, and was 
in no way consequent or dependent upon the foreseen fall of man. Of 
this school were Beza, Francis Gomarus and Voesius. Opposed to 
Infralapsarian. 

Taborites.—A section of Calixtines, who received their name from 
a great encampment organized by them on a mountain near Prague, in 
1419, for the purpose of receiving the communion in both kinds. On 
the same spot they founded the city of Tabor and, assembling an in¬ 
surrectionary force, marched on Prague under the lead of Ziska (July 
30, 1419), and committed great atrocities under the pretense of aveng¬ 
ing insults offered to the Calixtine custom of communicating under 
both kinds. On the death of King Wenceslaus (August 16, 1419). 
they began to destroy churches and monasteries, to persecute the 
clergy,and to appropriate church property on the ground that Christ 
was shortly to appear and establish his personal reign among them. 
They were eventually conquered and dispersed in 1453 by George 
Podiebrada (afterward king of Bohemia). 

Theodotians.—A sect named after Theodotus, a tanner of Byzan¬ 
tium, who, apostatizing during a Roman persecution (A. D. 192), pal¬ 
liated his fall by representing that Jesus, notwithstanding His mirac¬ 
ulous conception, was only a man. A disciple of the former, a banker, 


688 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


also called Theodotus, organized the sect A. D. 210. He held that 
Jesus, though born a man, became God at His baptism. Some of 
Theodotus’ followers thought that Jesus did so at His resurrection 
Called also Melchisidicians. 

Theosophy.—A form of Christian mysticism, which, excluding 
the dialectic processes of philosophy, and the claims of authority 
and revelation, professed to derive its knowledge of God from direct 
and immediate intuition and contemplation, or from the immediate 
communication of God himself. 1 races of this belief are to be found 
in the early history of the church; but the name Theosophy, in this 
connection, is applied chiefly to the system developed from the writings 
of Jacob Bohme, or Bohmen (1575-1624), a shoemaker of Gorlitz, 
sometimes called the Teutonic Philosopher. He studied the Scrip¬ 
tures diligently, acquired some notions of chemistry and natural science, 
saw visions, as he believed, and came at last to consider his speculations 
on the Deity and origin of things as given to him by internal illumi¬ 
nation. According to Bohme, finite existences are an efflux from the 
One Infinite existence; and such efflux, manifesting itself in fire, light, 
and spirit, is a necessary attribute of God’s own being. Angels and 
men owe their origin to the divine fire, from which light and love are 
generated in them. This triune life is the perfection of being, and the 
loss of it constituted the fall of angels and men. Christ restored 
to men the germ of paradisiacal life, which is possessed by all through 
the new birth and His indwelling. No man can be lost except by the 
willful destruction of the germ of the divine life. Bohme’s Theoso¬ 
phy, however, was at the bottom thoroughly Christian. Henry More 
(1614-1687), to some extent adopted Bohme’s opinions, as did William 
Law (1686-1761), the author of “ A Serious Call to a Devout Life.” 

Thomasites or Christadelphians. (From John Thomas, M. D., 
born in London, 1805, died at Worcester, Mass., 1871.)—A controver¬ 
sial name sometimes given to the Christadelphians, from the fact that 
Dr. John Thomas organized them into a separate religious body. They 
believe that immortality is the reward of the righteous, i. of those 
who receive the truth and are baptized, and that others will perish 
after punishment proportioned to their misdeeds or want of faith. 
They do not believe in the Trinity or in a personal devil. 

Thomism.—One of the two great schools of scholasticism, the 
other being Scotism. It derived its name from its founder, St. Thomas 
Aquinas (1227-74), the great Dominican doctor. In theology Thom¬ 
ism followed the doctrines of Augustine as to free will and grace, and 
held that the Virgin Mary was sanctified after her body was informed 
by the soul; its philosophy was a moderate Realism. As a system it 
rests on the Summa , of St. Thomas, which is divided into three parts: 
(1) Of God in Himself and as the Creator; (2) of God as the end of 
creatures, and of the actions which lead us to, or separate us from 
Him; and (3) of the Incarnation, the Sacraments and the Last Things 
(i. e., Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.) The Dominicans naturally 
adopted and defended Thomism. 

Valentinians.—The followers of Valentinus, an Egyptian gnostic, 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


689 


whose sect arose at Rome, then rooted itself deeply in Cyprus, and 
finally spread throughout a great part of southern Europe, western 
Asia and northern Africa. He supposed that in the Pleroma there 
were thirty male and as many female aeons united in wedlock, with 
four unmarried, these latter being Horus, Christ, the Holy Spirit and 
Jesus. The youngest aeon, Sophia (Wisdom), brought forth a daughter, 
Achamoth, whence sprang the Demiurge, who created mankind. This 
Demiurge, becoming puffed up with pride, aspired to be regarded as 
the only god, and led many angels into the same error. To repress his 
insolence, Christ descended, Jesus, one of the highest aeons, joining 
him when He was baptized in Jordan. The Demiurge had him cruci¬ 
fied; but, before his death, both Jesus, the Son of God and the rational 
soul of Christ had separated, leaving only the sentient soul and the 
ethereal body to suffer. 

Wakemanites.—A small party of fanatics existing at New Haven, 
Conn., in 1855, who regarded an old and apparently insane woman, 
named Rhoda Wakeman, as a divinely-commissioned prophetess, who 
had been raised from the dead. At her bidding, some of her followers 
murdered a small farmer, Justus Matthews, who, she said, was pos¬ 
sessed by an evil spirit. The unfortunate man willingly submitted to 
the sentence pronounced by the pseudo-prophetess, but the extinction 
of the sect followed as a matter of course. 

Waldenses, Valdenses.—A sect which for many centuries has 
maintained its independence of the Church of Rome, from which it 
differs in tenets and government. Its chief seats have long been in 
the three high valleys of Piedmont, situated in the Cottian Alps, on 
the Italian side of the main chain, but so near the great pass between 
France and Italy that French as well, as Italian is spoken in the val¬ 
leys. They claim to have arisen in apostolic times, maintaining 
an unbroken succession of bishops, but the claim is unfounded, and 
they probably derived their origin from Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of 
Lyons, and deeply pious man, who at first had no desire to depart from 
the tenets of the Roman Church, but simply aimed at deepening the 
religious feeling of its adherents. He was ultimately brought into col¬ 
lision with the church authorities when, in and after 1160, he had the four 
gospels translated from Latin into French, and adopted the view that 
it was lawful for laymen to preach. His opinions spread rapidly, his 
followers, like himself, not at first greatly differing in doctrine from 
the Church of Rome. According to Comba (Histoire de Vaudois d ’ 
Italic') they had no distinctive Waldensian literature, nor any wide 
religious influence, until after they had been influenced by the teaching 
of Wycliffe and his disciple, Huss. M. Montet (Histoire Litteraire des 
Vaudois) divides Waldensian literature into three periods: (i)The 
Catholic period, during which the dogmas and practices of the church 
were accepted; (2) the Hussite period, in which the Pope is fiercely 
attacked, the sacraments are invalid by reason of the wickedness of 
the priests, and there is a strong leaning toward the universal priest¬ 
hood; (3) the Calvinistic period, marked by falsification of docu¬ 
ments, forgery and mutilation, with the object of showing that the 
44 


690 THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

Waldensian is a Christian body which had descended from apostolic 
times, preserving their faith through the ages in primitive form. This 
fiction M. Montet has destroyed though, as he acknowledges, the late 
Mr. Henry Bradshaw had already exposed the real character of some 
of the documents adduced. After the Reformation, persecution, which 
had already been directed against them, became more fierce. Numbers 
were slain by Francis I. of France in 1545 and 1546, by the Duke of 
Savoy in 1560, and by Charles Emmanuel II. in 1655. Other persecu¬ 
tions followed in 1663, 1664, and 1686, great sympathy for the sufferers 
being shown by Protestant nations, especially by England during the 
Protectorate. Gradually the Waldensians obtained toleration; on 
December 15, 1853, they received permission from Victor Emmanuel 
II. to erect a church in Turin, and it is probable that they will unite 
with the P'ree Church of Italy. The services are of the plainest type 
of Genevan Protestantism, the people only joining in the occasional 
singing of a hymn. 

Wycliffites.—The followers of John Wycliffe, Wiclif, or de Wiclif, 
etc. (there are about twenty ways of spelling the name). He was 
born at Hipswell, near Richmond, England, about A. D. 1324, and was 
educated at Oxford University. On February 3, 1377, he was sum¬ 
moned to appear before a convocation of the clergy on a charge of 
heresy, which ended abortively. On May 22, 1377, five papal bulls 
were issued against him, and next year a second ecclesiastical trial 
took place, the Londoners, who are said to have been opposed to him 
on the former occasion, taking his part on this. In May, 1382, a synod 
of divines condemned his opinions, which led to his being prevented 
from any longer teaching in the university. In 1381 he issued sixteen 
theses against transubstantiation. Apparently about 1380 or 1381 he 
published the translation into English of the Bible and Apocrypha 
from the Latin Vulgate; a second edition or retranslation, less literal 
but smoother in style, was issued by John Purvey about A. D. 1388. 
This was after the death of Wycliffe which took place in the parish of 
Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, of which he was rector, on December 
31, 1384. On May 2, 1415, the Council of Constance condemned 
Wycliffe’s tenets, and ordered that his books should be destroyed and 
his body dug up and burnt. 

Zwinglians.—The followers of Ulrich Zwingli, or Zuingli, the Swiss 
reformer, especially in his sacramentarian doctrine. Zwingli was born 
at Wildhaus, in the Toggenburg, in January, 1484, the year after 
Luther’s birth, and was ordained priest in 1506. In 1516, a year before 
the commencement of the German reformation under Luther, he 
began to preach doctrines which were essentially those of Protest¬ 
antism. In 1518 he was in conflict with Samson, a P'ranciscan friar 
and an eager salesman of indulgences. In January, 1525, mainly 
through his exertions, the mass was abolished at Zurich, other cantons 
speedily following the example. Differences of opinion regarding the 
Eucharist having arisen in 1524 between the German and Swiss 
Reformers, Zwingli took a prominent part in the controversy with 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


691 


Luther in a conference at Marburg in September, 1529. On October 
1 5 » I 53 L h e was hilled in the battle of Cappel, fought on a politico- 
religious question between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic 
Swiss cantons. Zwingli’s views on the sacrament were afterward fol¬ 
lowed or independently adopted by Calvin. 







A Coptic Priest 



















XXXV. 

MINOR NON-CHRISTIAN SECTS. 







Minor N on-Christian Sects. 





facts 


DAMITES.—In the third and fourth centuries 
a small sect appeared in north Africa, claim¬ 
ing to return to the primitive condition of 
Adam. They condemned marriage, appeared 
naked in religious meetings, and were accused 
of the grossest immoralities. They were ulti¬ 
mately suppressed by the civil arm. 

Agnosticism.—A school of thought which 
believes that, beyond what man can know by 
his senses, or feel by his higher affections, 
nothing can be known. Facts, or supposed 
lets, both of the lower and the higher life, are 
ccepted, but all inferences deduced from these 
to the existence of an unseen world, or of beings 
higher than man, are considered unsatisfactory, and are 
ignored. Agnostics, Positivists and Secularists have much 
in common, and many people exist to whom any one of 
the three names might be indifferently applied. 

Allenites.—Hemy Allen, of Newport, R. I., in 1774 originated 
this body, which had its principal growth in Nova Scotia He taught 
that all souls are emanations of one great spirit, and that all human 
beings were present in Eden in person, with the first human pair, and 
sinned with them; that the material world and material bodies were 
not made until after man’s transgression; that Christ was not raised 
from the grave, and that all souls will be punished in a disembodied 
state. Allen died in 1784, and the sect soon became extinct. 

Brotherhood of the New Life.—This is an organization first 
established in Brockton, N. Y., but subsequently removed to Sonoma 
county, Cal., where it now exists. Its founder was Thomas Lake 
Harris, once a Christian minister, afterward a follower of Andrew 
Jackson Davis, and then a teacher of “ occultism,” albeit a shrewd 
man of affairs. The celebrated Laurence Oliphant was one of his 
converts. Miss A. A. Chevalier was at one time a member of his 
community, who charged Harris and his fellows with shameless 
debauchery under the garb of “pure communion.’’ The Brotherhood 
is supposed to be a nest of “ free love ’’ and other iniquities. 

695 


696 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


Darwinism.—Named after Charles Darwin, the grandson of Dr. 
Erasmus Darwin, author of the “ Botanic Garden,” published in 1781. 
The son of Dr. Erasmus Darwin was an eminent physician practicing 
at Shrewsbury, England, in which town Charles Darwin was born, 
in February, 1809. He first became known through going (without 
salary) as naturalist with the “ Beagle ” surveying ship of war, which, 
between December, 1831, and December, 1836, circumnavigated the 
globe. Between 1842 and 1846 he published three important works, 
one of which — that on coral-reefs — revolutionized the views till 
then held on the formation of the Pacific Islands. On November 
24, 1859, he gave to the world the first edition of his immortal work 
on the “Origin of Species;” on January 7, i860, the second appeared. 
The work has been translated into most, if not all, civilized languages. 
In 1871 Mr. Darwin, in his “ Descent of Man,” extended the views 
advanced in the “ Origin of Species ” to the human race. His last 
great work, one announcing great discoveries in connection with the 
earthworm, was called “The Formation of Vegetable Mould.” When 
the “ Origin of Species” and the “ Descent of Man ” were sent forth, 
many replies were published by religious men who deemed his views 
completely antagonistic to revelation; but when he died, on April 
19, 1882, his merits were acknowledged on all sides. Admirers con¬ 
sidered him the Sir Isaac Newton of biology, while even those who 
could not assent to his views believed that Westminster Abbey was 
his fitting resting-place; and in a circular appealing for contributions 
to a memorial in his honor two of the most prominent names are those 
of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. 

Just before the publication of Mr. Darwin’s first great work on the 
subject, the vast majority of naturalists believed that each species, 
whether of animals or of plants, was a separate creation. It was 
known that it might run into “varieties,” might be improved by culti¬ 
vation, or might help to originate a “ hybrid ” between it and another 
species, it which case the hybrid was sterile; but it was deemed quite 
a canon of natural science that it could undergo no farther change. 
Mr. Darwin followed a small but distinguished school of naturalists 
in setting wholly aside this canon, and accepting instead of it the 
transmutation of species. Mr. Darwin’s views, as to how species 
originated, arrived at independently about the same time by Mr. Alfred 
Russel Wallace, and foreshadowed by Aristotle, Matthews, and others, 
may be embodied in the following postulates or propositions: 

1. That a certain amount of variability exists in every animal or 
plant. No children of the same parents are quite alike, and the cir¬ 
cumstances of the life of each tend to increase the original variation. 
It is the same with animals and plants. Variation is so great under 
domestication that it has excited universal notice. Witness the case 
of tame pigeons, dogs, cats, or cattle. Similar changes go on a slower 
rate in nature among wild animals and plants. 

2. Animals and plants, when not checked in their increase, tend 
to multiply at a geometrical ratio. Malthus long ago pointed out that 
this is the case with man, and it is the same with inferior animals and 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


697 


plants. Each species would singly fill the earth were it not checked 
by others. 

3. Hence there is a continuous struggle for existence among all 
organized beings in the world, individuals of each species battling 
against those of all other species, and yet more severely against those 
of their own. 

4. Speaking broadly, those best adapted for the struggle will be 
the victors in it, while those less adapted to it will be defeated and die. 
This is called by Mr. Darwin, natural selection. 

5. As the offspring of any animal or plant tends to be in most 
respects like its parent, and as the less improved forms are likely to be 
vanquished and perish, each race will ultimately be continued by the 
individuals in it more highly organized than the rest. Sexual prefer¬ 
ences will produce a selection tending in the same direction. 

6. The result will be an endless progression evolving higher 
species, genera, families, orders, classes, if not even sub-kingdoms 
themselves, the infinitely varied forms being each adapted to the cir¬ 
cumstances by which it is surrounded. Man is believed by Mr. Darwin 
to have possibly descended at a highly remote period, from “a group 
of marine animals resembling the larvae of existing ascidians ” (a 
lowly type of mollusks). The line of our ancestry ran next through 
the ganiod fishes, the amphibians, the monotremata, the ancient 
marsupials, the early progenitors of the placental mammals, the 
lemuridae, the simiadae, the anthropoid apes, and a species covered 
with hair, both sexes having beards, the ears pointed and capable of 
movement, great canine teeth present in the males, the body provided 
with a tail, the foot prehensile, the habits arboreal, the birthplace 
some warm forest-clad land. 

Darwinism was and is, to a certain extent, misunderstood by the 
general public. When first it was broached it was held as teaching, 
among other views, that— 

“A very tall pig, with a very long nose, 

Puts forth a proboscis quite down to his toes, 

And then by the name of an elephant goes.” 

Here the transformation is in the lifetime of one animal. Mr. Dar¬ 
win’s transformations demand for their accomplishment vastly 
extended geological ages, and at the end of them the pig does not 
become the elephant. He held that at a remote point of bygone geolog¬ 
ical time an animal, which was neither a pig nor an elephant, but had 
the characteristics common to both existed. It gave rise to more 
specialized forms; the same process took place with them till the pig 
came at last from an ancestor not so specialized as itself, and the 
elephant from another. It is difficult, if not impossible to harmonize 
Darwinism with the views regarding creation entertained by the great 
majority of the people; with theism it has not necessarily any contro¬ 
versy. With regard to the origin of life Mr. Darwin believes that it 
may have “ been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms 
or into one.” Thus not merely a God, but a Creator, is recognized.— 
American Encyclopedic Dictionary. 


698 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


Deism-Theism.—A deist or a theist is one who admits the being 
of a God, but denies the existence or even necessity of a divine rev¬ 
elation, believing that the light of nature and reason are sufficient 
guides in doctrine and practice; a believer in natural religion only; a 
freethinker. 

Etymologically the words deist and theist are the same in mean¬ 
ing, only deist is from Latin and theist from Greek. Conventionally, 
however, they are widely different in import; the term theist being 
applied to any believer in God, whether that believer be a Christian a 
Jew, a Mohammedan, etc., or a deist properly so called. A Deist is, 
as the definition states, one who believes in God but disbelieves in 
Christianity, or more generally in revelation. 

Dorrelites.—Dorrel, in Leyden, Mass., about 1790, declared himself 
a prophet with a mission to supersede Christianity. He denied the 
resurrection, except a rising from sin to righteousness, and declared 
the Scriptures only a type of the true revelation, which is the light 
within. He held that the converted are incapable of sinning. This 
form of antinomian deism did not long hold together, though the 
doctrines that distinguished it are found here and there from time 
to time. 

Druids.—The religion of the Druids is supposed by some to 
have been similar to that of the Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, 
and the Chaldaeans of Syria. They worshiped in groves, and offered 
human sacrifices. The education of the young was entirely in the 
hands of the Druids, and they exercised complete control over the 
minds of lay people. They also acted as judges. The chief Druid 
was elected from the body of priests and held his office for life. They 
are believed to have had some knowledge of philosophy, geometry, 
etc. The oak was looked upon as a sacred tree, and mistletoe, when 
found growing on it, was an object of veneration. 

Dualism.—In religion that system which accounts for the exist¬ 
ence of evil in the world by supposing two co-eternal principles, one 
good the other evil; specially Manicheanism. Dualism has always 
been condemned by the Christian church, though the doctrine of the 
fall, brought about by Satanic agency, is in reality a modified species 
of dualism. The raison d'etre of Dualism cannot be better shown than 
by the words of St. Augustine, who was for a short time a Manichean: 
“ There can be no more difficult question than this, if God be all-pow¬ 
erful, how comes it there is so much evil in the world, if He be not the 
author of it?” 

Intuitionists.—Intuitionists repudiate external revelation, and 
regard the soul’s intuitions as the soul’s sure and sufficient guide. It 
seems to substitute idolatry of self for the worship of God. It 
resembles, though it is not identical with, the “ Religion of Hu- 

_ • A 9) • 

manity. 

Materialism.—The system of philosophy which regards mind as a 
function of matter; the mechanical theory of the universe. The first 
traces of Materialism as a system are to be found in the atomistic phi¬ 
losophy of Leucippus and Democritus, which sought to comprehend all 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


699 


phenomena as products of matter and motion alone. Next in order 
comes the Epicurean School, but Epicurus differed from Democritus 
in ascribing to the atoms a certain power of individual or arbitrary 
self-determination (Cic., de Nat. Deor., i., 24, 25). From this time a 
supernatural element may be said to have found a place in every phil¬ 
osophical system till the seventeenth century, since which time mate¬ 
rialism has again come to the front. Gassendi (1592-1655) sought to 
combine Epicureanism with Christian theology; but F. A. Lange 
[Gesch dcs Matenalismus, p. 118) does not scruple to call him “ the 
renewer in modern times of systematic materialism.” In England, 
Hobbes (1588-1679) accepted Materialism as the foundation of his 
theory [Lewes: Hist. Phil., ii., 234), and was followed by Hartley (1704- 
1757), and still later by Priestley (1733-1804), who, like Gassendi, sought 
to combine Materialism with Christianity. In France the System of 
Nature of Holbach (1723-1789) was the greatest production of mate¬ 
rialist philosophy in the eighteenth century. In Germany, in the pres¬ 
ent day Materialism has many champions, men distinguished for 
physical—and especially biological—research, standing in the foremost 
ranks. Moleschott, combating Liebig, comes to the conclusion: “ No 
matter without force; no force without matter” [Der Kreislaufdes 
Lebens , p. 362). The chief opponents of the outburst of Materialism in 
Germany were Wagner, Lotze and Fichte.— American Encyclopezdic Dic¬ 
tionary. 

Nature-Worship.—A generic term to denote a stage of religious 
thought in which the powers of nature are personified and worshiped. 
It found its highest and most beautiful expression in the mythology 
of ancient Greece. Classifying religions with regard to the estima¬ 
tion in which the Deity is held, Lubbock [Origin of Civilization , 1882, p. 
206) makes Nature-Worship the second stage, Atheism (the absence of 
definite ideas on the subject) being the first. 

Neoplatonism.—The name given to an important movement in the 
Alexandrian school. G. H. Lewes says that their originality consisted 
in having employed the Platonic Dialectics as a guide to Mysticism and 
Pantheism; in having connected the doctrine of the East with the dia¬ 
lectics of the Greeks; in having made reason the justification of faith; 
and he concludes that “by their dialectics they were Platonists; by 
their theory of the Trinity they were Mystics; by their principle of 
emanation they were Pantheists.” Under Justinian (483-565) the 
Alexandrian school became extinct. 

New Born (Princeites in England).—The New Born hold that all 
the members of the organization are reconciled to God and saved 
from sin; that men and women are equal; that the community should 
possess the property of all. They practice what they call complex 
marriage, or a most licentious free love. Their chapel is a theater 
and place of business as well as of worship. Their principal com¬ 
munity is at Oneida Creek, New York. The New Born, or Family of 
Love, began in Pennsylvania, about 1720. 

Pantheism.—The view that God and the universe are identical. 
It was taught in India in the Vedantic system of philosophy, one of 


700 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the six leading schools of thought, and to this day it is widely 
accepted, both by the instructed Brahmins and by the common people. 
Pantheism is believed to have been the creed of various Greek philos¬ 
ophers, as of Anaximander of Miletus (B. C. 610-547)* Pythagoras 
(B. C. 610-547), and Xenophanes (B. C. 540-500). It was held by 
John Scotus Erigena, A. D. 874. In the latter part of the twelfth cent¬ 
ury it was taught by Amalric of Chartres, a dialectician and theo¬ 
logian. Pope Innocent III. forced him to recant his views, notwith¬ 
standing which his bones were dug up and burnt in 1209. By many 
Spinoza is considered to have revived Pantheism, but his teaching in 
this respect has been misunderstood. In the Pantheism of Schelling 
God is considered as the Absolute Being, revealing Himself in external 
nature and in human intelligence and freedom, thus closely approach¬ 
ing the dictum of St. Paul, “In Him we live, and move, and have our 
being” i^Acts xvii., 28; cf. Col. i., 17). It is noteworthy that the Greek 
poet Aratus, quoted by St. Paul, is distinctly pantheistic, and his lines 
might have served for the germ of the better known, but not less 
beautiful passage in Virgil {Georg, iv., 219-227). 

Perfectionists, Bible Communists, or Free Lovers.—Under the 
leadership of John H. Noyes,they began to be about 1854 and claimed to 
be free from the principles of morality and to be governed by religious 
considerations only. Noyes had been an Independent minister at 
Yale College, New Haven, Conn. He professed to have discovered 
from the writings of St. Paul that all Christian sects were in spiritual 
darkness, and determined to establish a church of his own. He 
founded a community at Oneida, N. Y., and others subsequently at 
Wallingford, New Haven and New York, in order to carry out what he 
asserted to be a divinely revealed system of society, based on the fol¬ 
lowing principles: (1) Reconciliation with God; (2) salvation from 
sin; (3) brotherhood of man and woman; and (4) community of labor, 
and of its fruits. They are called also Bible Communists and Free 
Lovers. 

Picardists.—These fanatics were a revival in the fifteenth century, 
in France and Germany, of the Adamites of the third century. They 
reappeared in 1781, and later in 1849, m Bohemia and Sclavonia. 
They were principally ignorant peasants, and were exterminated for 
alleged immoralities. 

Positivism.—The religion of humanity, developed from the posi¬ 
tive philosophy, and claiming to be a synthesis of all human concep¬ 
tions of the external order of the universe. Its professed aim, both in 
public and private life, is to secure the victory of social feeling over 
self-love, of altruism over egoism. According to Encyclopaedia Brit- 
annica ed. 9th, vi., 237, it is really “utilitarianism, crowned by a fantastic 
decoration,” and the “worship and system of Catholicism are trans¬ 
ferred to a system in which the conception of God is superseded by 
the abstract idea of humanity, conceived as a kind of personality.” 

Pythagorism.—The system of belief attributed to Pythagoras, born 
in Samos about 540 B. C. He died about 504. He never committed 
his system to writing. This was first done by Philolaus, one of his 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


701 


disciples. Pythagoras is said to have regarded numbers as the essence 
or principle of things, the elements out of which the universe was 
made, and attributed to them a true and independent existence. The 
principles of numbers were contrasted, as a straight line and a curve, 
an even and an odd, all traceable back to a monad in which both an 
even and an odd were included. The world was a breathing being. 
There were five elements, fire, air, water, earth and one unnamed. In 
the central part of the universe was a fire, around which the sun, moon, 
and planets, with the celestial sphere itself, revolved. These were 
either themselves gods, or had their movements directed by gods. 
There existed a music of the spheres, the celestial bodies dancing a 
choral dance around the central fire. The soul of man was an emana¬ 
tion from the universal soul of the world. There was a transmigration 
of souls. Flesh and beans were not to be eaten. Nature was in uni¬ 
formity with the will of the Deity, and human life should make an 
approach to the harmony of nature. The Pythagorean system 
declined about B. C. 300, but revived two centuries later, and in the 
Augustan age the views of its advocates as to the past changes which 
the earth had undergone through the operation of fire, water, etc. 
{Ovid: Metamorph ., bk. xv.), were essentially so sound as to excite the 
commendation of Sir Charles Lyell.—( Princip . of Geol., bk. i., ch. i.) 

Rationalism.—A system which makes reason the supreme arbiter in 
all matters connected with the Bible and the Christian religion, and 
which refuses to accept any doctrine or professedly historical state¬ 
ment to which reason believes that it has grounds for taking exception. 
Isolated cases of Rationalism, or an approach to it, have frequently 
appeared in the church, but as a system it first became prominent in 
Germany in the latter half of the eighteenth century. In 1754 Her¬ 
mann Reimarus, of Hamburg, privately circulated among his friends 
some Rationalistic writings of his. Lessing pretended that he had found 
them in the YVolfenbuttel library, of which he was librarian, and between 
1773 and 1777 published them under the name of the Wolfenbiittel 
Fragments. They produced a great sensation. John David Michaelis 
(1717-1791), Johann Semler (1728-1794), and others established a mid¬ 
dle path between the extreme views of the Fragmentists and the 
accepted Protestant orthodoxy, and it was to. this intermediate school 
that the term rationalistic was chiefly applied. The earlier Rationalists 
in large measure confined their new methods of interpretation to the 
Old Testament; Johann Eichorn (1752-1827) and Heinrich Paulus 
( 1761-1850) extended them to the New. As time advanced, Rational¬ 
ism became more extreme. Its earlier professors generally, accepting 
the views as to the authorship of the several sacred books traditionally 
held, considered that they, when rightly understood, narrated true 
history, but their oriental or poetic language required to be translated 
into that of ordinary life. For instance, the angel and the flaming 
sword which prevented our first parents from re-entering paradise 
really meant the thunder-storms prevalent in the region. The later 
Rationalists mostly deny the accepted authorship of the sacred books, 
and more sweepingly than their predecessors set their teaching aside. 


702 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


In 1835-6 Dr. David Strauss, in his Lebenjesu, resolved the whole evan¬ 
gelical narrative into myth and legend. Rationalism subsequently 
spread from Germany into other countries. In i860 appeared the 
Essays and Reviews, by seven clergymen of the English Church, and 
in 1862 the first part of a Critical Commentary on the Pentateuch and the 
Book of Joshua by Dr. William Colenso, Bishop of Natal, five other 
parts subsequently appearing. Both these productions led to ecclesi¬ 
astical prosecutions. In 1863 Ernest Renan published in Paris his Vie 
de Jesus. Though combating the claims of the sacred writers, as a rule, 
Rationalists of all schools speak with respect of them.— American En¬ 
cyclopedic Dictionary. 

Serpent-Worship.—Ophiolatry; the worship of serpents as symbols 
or avatars of a deity, a branch of animal-worship, with a wide range 
in time and space. Fergusson connects it with tree-worship. He 
considers that the curse pronounced on the serpent (Gen. iii., 14, 15) 
had reference to Serpent-Worship, and was put in by the writers of the 
Pentateuch, who “set themselves to introduce the purer and loftier 
worship of the Elohim, or of Jehovah,” in order to discountenance an 
older faith, to which from time to time some of the Jews seem to have 
reverted (2 Kings xviii., 4; Wisdom xi., 15, Story of Bel). In Greece 
the center of Serpent-Worship was the grove of Epidaurus, whence the 
Romans on the occasion of a plague, A. U. C. 462, sent for a serpent 
and brought it to Rome with great ceremony ( Liv . x., 47; Ov. Met. 
xv., 626-744); at the siege of Troy a serpent appears as an omen of 
victory to the Greeks (II. ii., 304; cf. Ov. Met. xii., 1-23), and from 
Plutarch we know that Alexander was reputed to have been of a 
serpent race. In Roman history many traces of Serpent-Worship 
appear. In addition to the embassy to Epidaurus may be cited the 
fate of Laocoon (Ain. ii., 201-33), the snake which glided from the 
tomb of Anchises ( ib. v., 84-99), an d which Alneas considered to be 
either the genius loci , or the spirit of his father; and the sacred serpent 
of Lanuvium (prop, iv., 8); while from Persius (i., 113), and from dis¬ 
coveries at Pompeii and Herculanseum it is clear that the serpent was 
a sacred emblem. In modern times Serpent-Worship is prevalent 
among some of the Indians of North America, on the west coast of 
Africa, and, to a great extent, in India. 

Secularism.—The name given, about 1846, by Mr. George Jacob 
Holyoake to an ethical system founded on natural morality. 

“ Secularism is that which seeks the development of the physical, 
moral and intellectual nature of man to the highest possible point, as 
the immediate duty of life—which inculcates the practical sufficiency 
of natural morality apart from Atheism, Theism, or the Bible—which 
selects as its method of procedure the promotion of human improve¬ 
ment by material means, and proposes these positive agreements as 
the common bond of union, to all who would regulate life by reason 
and ennoble it by service.”— G. J. Holyoake: Principles of Secularism 
(ed. 1859), p. 17. 

Shamanism.—A form of religion practiced in Siberia, though 
Lubbock (Orig. of Civil., ed. 1882, p. 339) remarks that “the phase of 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


• 703 


thought is widely distributed, and seems to be a necessary stage in the 
progress of religious development. There is no system of belief, and 
the only religious ceremonies consist in the Shamans working them¬ 
selves into a fury, and supposing or pretending that they are inspired 
by the spirit in whose name they speak, and through whose inspira¬ 
tion they are enabled to answer questions and foretell the future.” 

Spiritualism.—A system of professed communication with the 
unseen world, chiefly through persons called mediums. It is asserted 
that spirits manifest their presence by raps, by unfastening knots, by 
transportation of furniture and human beings through the air, by the 
turning and tilting of tables, by writing on slates, playing on musical 
instruments, imparting phosphorescence to certain objects, and i in 
some cases, by becoming partly or entirely materialized in human 
form. The first rappings are said to have been heard in 1844 in a 
house in Acadia, N. Y., inhabited by a Mr. Fox, and his daugh¬ 
ters afterward became mediums and gave public seances in various 
towns in the United States. About 1852 American mediums went to 
London, and their claims were strictly investigated. In 1855 Mr. D. D. 
Home visited England, and afterward the continent of Europe, where 
he is said to have shown his powers before many sovereigns, and to have 
strongly impressed Napoleon III. with their supernatural character. 
Since that time Spiritualism has developed into a cult, and many per¬ 
sons have professed to believe in it, and to derive consolation from its 
teachings. Its opponents urge that two extremely suspicious circum¬ 
stances attend so-called spirit-manifestations: That they usually take 
place in the dark, and that the presence of a determined unbeliever is 
sufficient to prevent them. Moreover, it is indisputable that in some 
cases actual frauds have been practiced by mediums, and many of the 
manifestations have been imitated by professional conjurers. 

The Spiritual Magazine , their most important foreign publication, 
has as its motto: 

“Spiritualism is based on the cardinal fact of spirit communion 
and influx. It is the effort to discover all truth relating to man’s spir¬ 
itual nature, capacities, relations, duties, welfare and destiny, and its 
application to a regenerate life. It recognizes a continuous divine 
inspiration in man. It aims, through a careful reverent study of facts, 
at a knowledge of the laws and principles which govern the occult 
forces of the universe; of the relations of spirit to matter and of man 
to God and the spiritual world. It is thus catholic and progressive, 
leading to true religion as at one with the highest philosophy .”—Ameri 
ca?i Encyclopaedic Dictionary. 

In 1890 there were in this country 334 organizations with 45,000 
members. But these members only hint the larger number of those 
who accept the general idea of spiritual communication. 

Sun-Worship.—A form of nature-worship widely, though by no 
means universally, diffused at the present day among races of low 
culture. The sun would naturally be chosen as a god by agricultural 
and pastoral peoples, while to races living by the chase the summer 
heat would not be so advantageous. D’Orbigny (EHomme Americain 


704 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


i., 242) suggests that the sun has been worshiped only by races living 
in temperate climates where its heat is cheering and vivifying, and 
that this cultus is practically unknown within the tropics where the 
solar heat is oppressive. If not entirely true, this theory contains 
considerable truth. Herodotus (i M 216; iv., 284) describes the 
Atlantes, who dwelt in the interior of Africa, as cursing the sun for 
afflicting them with his burning heat, and Sir Samuel Baker (Albert 
Nyanza 1., 144) says that in central Africa “ the sun is regarded as the 
common enemy.” Traces of Sun-Worship appear in the earliest records 
of the human race. * * In the Old Testament there are solemn de¬ 

nunciations of Sun-Worship (Deut., iv. 19; xvii., 3; Jer. xliii., 13; Ezek. 
viii., 16-18), for the Israelites were surrounded by Sun-Worshipers, and 
it is clear from 2 Kings xxiii., 5, 19, that the rulers of Judah had 
adopted the cult. Modern Hinduism is full of Sun-worship, and it 
exists as a distinct cultus among the Kol tribes, the Khonds and the 
Tartars. It is still widely spread among the native races of Central 
America, and probably found its highest form of development in Peru, 
where the sun was held to be at once the ancestor and founder of the 
dynasty of the Incas, who reigned as his representative and made Sun- 
Worship the great state religion. 

Theistic Church.—A church founded in London in 1871 for the 
purpose of promulgating the theistic views of the Rev. Mr. C. Voysey, 
“which the decision of the privy council (1870) has debarred him 
from preaching as vicar of Healaugh.” Their leading principles are: 

1. That it is the right and duty of every man to think for himself 
in matters of religion. 

2. That there is no finality in religious beliefs; that higher views of 
God are always possible. 

3. That it is our duty to obtain the highest truth, and to proclaim 
it and to detect and controvert errors. 

4 That religion is based on morality. 

5. That Theism is not aggressive against persons, only against 
erroneous opinions. 

Their belief may be summarized thus: 

1. That there is one living and true God, and there is no other 
God beside Him. 

2. That He is perfect in power, wisdom and goodness, and there¬ 
fore every one is safe in His everlasting care. 

3. Therefore that none can ever perish or remain eternally in 
suffering or in sin, but all shall reach at last a home of goodness and 
blessedness in Him. 

Theosophy.—A term signifying literally “ Divine Wisdom,” but 
which has been employed to designate several systems differing widely 
from each other, of which the chief are: 

1. The system of the Fire-philosophers or Rosicrucians who 
claimed to be able, by a miraculous intuition of the properties of the 
so-called element of fire, to provide a solution, not only for every diffi¬ 
culty of physics, but also for every doubtful problem in the spiritual 
world. The leader of this movement was Paracelsus (1493—1541); it 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


705 


gained many adherents on the Continent, and had a celebrated advo¬ 
cate in England in the person of Robert Fludd (1574-1637). These 
Theosophists asserted that God, who is unchangeable, acts in the king¬ 
dom of grace just as He does in the kingdom of nature; so that who¬ 
ever understands how natural bodies, in particular the metals, are 
changed, understands also what passes in the soul in regeneration, 
sanctification and renovation. 

2. Search after divine knowledge—the term divine applying to 
the divine nature of the abstract principle, not to the quality of a per¬ 
sonal God. ( Olcott: Theosophy , p. 176.) Theosophy is apparently 
allied to Spiritualism, and, like it, is decidedly anti-Christian. More¬ 
over it has been alleged, with some show of truth, that the so-called 
occult phenomena produced by some of the leading Theosophists in 
support of their system are neither more nor less than conjuring tricks. 
(See also St. Janies Gazette , June 22, 1881; Athenceum , August 27, 1881; 
Saturday Review , September 3, 1881.) 

3. Of late years Theosophy has attracted widespread attention in 
both hemispheres, and intimate relations have existed between the 
leaders of the movement. Owing to facility of correspondence and 
travel the Theosophists have been enabled to act more in unison, and 
the names of the leaders of the faith have become familiar to the 
reading public of the whole world. Some ridicule has attached to the 
belief on account of the extravagant expressions of some of its alleged 
followers, who are utterly incapable of appreciating any portion of its 
teachings which at all tend to metaphysics or mysticisms.— American 
Encyclopedic Dictionary. 

Prof. C. H. Chakravarti, of Allahabad, at the “World’s Congress 
of Religions,” defined Theosophy. He said that only long discipline 
and contemplation and study of the Scriptures in the East would 
enable any one to understand its lofty transcendentalism. He declared 
it only necessary to insist on its sublime doctrine of brotherhood, as a 
scientific tenet, and that all creatures came from one source and return 
to whence they came, which are really its only essential truths. He 
added that all animals are journeying toward man’s estate. Theoso¬ 
phy is pronounced to be in harmony with science, and the foundation of 
the Old and New Testaments, and that all Scriptures contain truths, 
and that all saviors are Christs. Great stress was laid on the doctrine 
of reincarnations and the law of Karma. 

Voodoo.—“As generally understood, Voodoo means the persist¬ 
ence, in Hayti, of abominable magic, mysteries, and cannibalism 
brought originally from Africa.”— London Daily News. 

A negro sorcerer or witch who practices human sacrifice and 

cannibalism. 

In the southern states of the Union there was at one time a wide¬ 
spread and deep-rooted belief in the power of these sorcerers. As 
the negroes advance in education, the belief is dying away. At one 
time, however, despite all efforts of religious teachers to banish the 
mastery of this belief from the minds of the slaves, the Voodoo “ doc¬ 
tor” was an almost omnipotent individual in the estimation of his 
45 


706 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


fellows. No slave could, under any pretext, be persuaded to expose 
himself to the vengeance or wrath of one of these conjurors. In some 
cases there was a reasonable foundation for these fears; for in not a 
few instances has it been proven that some of the Voodoos were skill¬ 
ful poisoners, and while the great mass of their professed art was a 
rank imposture, still they possessed enough of devilish skill to 
render them objects of wholesome dread. Their methods were as 
varied and variable as the winds. Anything that was mysterious, or 
likely to impress the ignorant mind with a feeling of terror was eagerly 
seized upon and improved by them to their own advantage. Their 
services were more often invoked in destructive than in curative offices. 
If a negro desired to destroy an enemy, he sought the aid of the Voo¬ 
doo, who in many cases, would undertake to remove the obnoxious 
one, and the removal was generally accomplished through the medium 
of poison. No doubt exists that in many cases the victim of a Voodoo 
died from sheer fright, for whenever a negro had reason to think 
that he was possessed by the spell of the Voodoo, he at once gave up 
all hope, thus hastening the accomplishment of the end toward which 
the energies of the sorcerer were directed. Their incantations and 
spell-workings were always conducted with the greatest secrecy, no 
one being allowed to witness the more occult and potent portion of 
their ritual. They were frequently employed by dusky swains to 
gain for them the affections of their hard-hearted inamoratas, and love- 
powders and other accessories for “ tricking ” constituted their stock 
in trade, and in some instances yielded them no insignificant revenue. 
The field in which Voodooism flourished best was the far south, among 
the rice, cotton and sugar plantations, where the negroes were not 
brought into contact so closely with their masters as they were fur¬ 
ther north. 

Evolution.—At the “World’s Congress of Religions” a paper was 
read from Herbert Spencer, who said: 

“At a congress which has for its chief purpose to advance 
ethics and politics by diffusing evolutionary ideas, it seems especially 
needful to dissipate a current misconception respecting the relation in 
which we stand individually toward the process of social evolution. 
Errors of a certain class may be grouped as errors of the uncultured, 
but there are errors of another class which characterize the cultured, 
implying, as they do, a large amount of knowledge with a good deal 
of thought, but yet, with thought not commensurate with the knowl¬ 
edge. The errors I refer to are of this class: 

“The conception of evolution at large, as it exists in those who are 
aware that evolution includes much more than ‘ natural selection,’ in¬ 
volves the belief that from beginning to end it goes on irresistibly and 
unconsciously. The concentration of nebulae into stars and the forma¬ 
tion of solar systems are desermined entirely by certain properties of 
the matter previously diffused. Planets which were once gaseous, then 
liquid, and finally covered by their crusts, gradually undergo geological 
transformations in virtue of mechanical and chemical processes. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


707 


“ Similarly, too, when we pass to organic bodies—plant and 
animal. Enabled to develop individually, as they are, by environing 
forces, and enabled to develop as species by processes which continue to 
adapt and readapt them to their changing environments, they are made 
to fit themselves to their respective lives, and, along certain lines, to 
reach higher lives, purely by the involved play of forces of which they 
are unconscious. The conception of evolution at large, thus far cor¬ 
rect, is by some extended to that highest form of evolution exhibited 
in societies. It is supposed that societies, too, passively evolve apart 
from any conscious agency; and the inference is that, according to the 
evolutionary doctrine, it is needless for individuals to have any care 
about progress, since progress will take care of itself. Hence the as¬ 
sertion that ‘ evolution erected into the paramount law of man’s moral 
and social life becomes a paralyzing and immoral fatalism.’ 

“ Here comes the error. Everyone may see that throughout the 
lower forms of evolution the process goes on only because the various 
units concerned—molecules of matter in some cases, and members of 
a species in another—respectively manifest their natures. It would be 
absurd to expect that inorganic evolution would continue if molecules 
ceased to attract or combine, and it would be absurd to suppose that 
organic evolution would continue if the instincts and appetites of indi¬ 
viduals of each species were wholly or even partially suspended. 

“ No less absurd is it to expect that social evolution will go on apart 
from the normal activeties, bodily and mental, of the component indi¬ 
viduals, apart from their desire and sentiments, and those actions 
which they prompt. It is true that much social evolution is achieved 
without any intention on the part of citizens to achieve it, and even 
without the consciousness that they are achieving it. The entire in¬ 
dustrial organization, in all its marvelous complexity, has arisen from 
the pursuit by each person of his own interests, subject to certain re¬ 
straints imposed by the incorporated society; and by this same spon¬ 
taneous action have arisen also the multitudinous appliances of 
industry, science, and art, from the flint knives up to automatic print¬ 
ing machines; from sledges up to locomotives a fact which might 
teach politicians that there are at work far more potent social agencies 

than those which they control. • 

“ But now observe that just as these astonishing results of social 
evolution, under one of its aspects, could never have arisen if men’s 
egoistic activities had been absent, so in the absence of their altruistic 
activities there could never have arisen and cannot further arise ccitain 
higher results of social evolution. Just as the egoistic feelings are the 
needful factors in the one case, so the altruistic feelings are the need¬ 
ful factors in the other, and whoever supposes the theory of evolution 
to imply that advanced forms of social life will be reached, even if the 
sympathetic promptings of individuals cease to operate, does not 

understand what the theory is 

“ simple analogy will make the matter clear. All admit that we 
have certain desires which insure the maintenance of the race, that 


708 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


the instincts which prompt to the marital relation and afterward sub¬ 
serve the parental relation make it certain that, without any injunction 
or compulsion, each generation will produce the next. Now suppose 
someone argued that since, in the order of nature, continuance of the 
species was thus provided for, no one need do anything toward further¬ 
ing the process by marrying. What should we think of his logic; 
what should we think of his expectation that the effect would be pro¬ 
duced when the causes of it were suspended? 

“ Yet, absurd as he would be, he could not be more absurd than the 
one who supposed that the higher phases of social evolution would 
come without the activity of those sympathetic feelings in men which 
are the factors of them; or, rather, he would not be more absurd than 
one who supposed that this is implied by the doctrine of evolution. 

“ The error results from failing to see that the citizen has to regard 
himself at once subjectively and objectively—subjectively, as possess¬ 
ing sympathetic sentiments (which are themselves the products of 
evolution); objectively, as one among many social units having like 
sentiments, by the combined operation of which certain social effects 
are produced. He has to to look on himself individually as a being 
moved by emotions which prompt philanthropic actions, while, as a 
member of society, he has to look on himself as an agent through 
whom these emotions work out improvements in social life. So far, 
then, is the theory of evolution from implying a ‘ paralyzing and im¬ 
moral fatalism,’ it implies that, for genesis of the highest social type 
and production of the greatest general happiness, altruistic activities 
are essential as well as egoistic activities, and that a due share of them 
is obligatory upon each citizen.” 


XXXVI. 

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
































■ 













The Religion of the North African 

Indians. 

By MISS ALICE C. FLETCHER. 


[E North American continent, extending from 
the tropics to the Polar seas, presents wide 
diversity of physical aspects, and many dis¬ 
tinctive environments which have left their 
impress upon the arts and cults of its peoples. 
Within this extended area there are two races, 
the Esquimau, which will not come under ourf 
consideration today, and the American race 
proper. 

This race, like our own, is composed of 
many peoples speaking different languages, 
languages belongingto widely different stocks. 
In our race these stocks are few in number, 
but here, in North America, there are more 
than two score, each varying from all the 
others as widely as the Semitic from the Aryan. 

Among so many linguistic stocks one would expect to find tribes 
of various mental capacities, and we do find them. There are some 
possessing a richer imagination, greater vitality of ideas and greater 
power of organization, and these people have impressed themselves 
upon others less capable of organization and power of growth. Thus 
it has happened here, as elsewhere, that one people has been perme¬ 
ated by the ideas of another while preserving its own language intact, 
as with us, who speak an Aryan tongue, but have become imbued with 
the religious thought of the Semites. 

The people we are considering are very ancient people. There is 
no reason to doubt that their ancestors were the men whose imple¬ 
ments and weapons have been found associated with the remains of 
extinct specimens of animals. This evidence of antiquity is re-in- 
forced by the recent discovery of an eminent Mexican archaeologist, 
who has found the key to the interpretation of the ancient Mexican 
calendar, thereby revealing a system of time measurements based upon 

711 





THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


A2 

the recurrence of a certain relative position of the sun and moon, 
which required for the completion of its grand cycle one thousand 
nine hundred and twenty-four years. By the lowest calculation this 
calendar was in use two thousand three hundred years B. C. 

Thus four thousand years ago the Mexicans were using a highly arti¬ 
ficial calendar, one that, so far as is known today, could nothave been bor¬ 
rowed from any other people, since nothing like it has been discovered 
in any other part of the world. How many years must have been 
spent in the observations which led to its construction who can say? 
But we know that from the completion of this system the Mexican 
people had fixed religious rites, and that their elaborate worship was 
regulated by cycles within the great cycle of their wonderful calendar. 

Startling as is the fact that in this so-called New World we are able 
to study a culture more than four thousand years old, stranger facts may 
come to light in the near future. The point to be emphasized is, that 
here in North America exists a race of great antiquity that has con¬ 
served social and religious forms which, speaking broadly, antedate 
those of the historic periods of the East. Here we can study not only 
the slow growth of society, but the equally slow and unequal develop¬ 
ment of man’s mental and spiritual nature. 

A comprehensive sketch of the religion of the North American 
Indian cannot be given within the limits of this paper, much less a 
definite picture. Only the indication of a few salient points is possible, 
and even these will not be easy to make clear because of our own com¬ 
plex methods of thought. Anything approaching a consensus of 
Indian beliefs can be obtained only from a careful study of the myths 
of the people, of their ceremonies, their superstitions and their various 
customs, and by searching through all these for the underlying principle, 
the governing thoughts and motives. Nowhere among the tribes can 
be found any formulated statement of belief; in no ceremony or ritual 
does there appear anything resembling a creed. This paper is there¬ 
fore predicated upon points of general unity. The vagueness of the 
Indian’s metaphysics must never be lost sight of, and to eliminate any 
scheme comprehensible to us from his mass of poetical and often 
seemingly inconsequential thought, is an exceedingly delicate and diffi¬ 
cult task. One runs the risk of formulating something, which although 
true in the premises, might be unrecognizable by the Indian himself. 

The aboriginal American’s feeling concerning God seems to indicate 
a power, mysterious, unknowable, unnamable, that animates all nature. 
From this power, in some unexplained way, proceeded in the past 
ages certain generic types, prototypes of everything in the world, and 
these still exist, but they are invisible to man in his natural state, being 
spirit types, although he can behold them and hear them speak in his 
supernatural visions. Through these generic types, as through so 
many conduits, flows the life coming from the great mysterious source 
of all life into the concrete forms which make up this world, as the 
sun, moon and the wind, the water, the earth and the thunder, the 
birds, the animals and the fruits of the earth. 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


713 


Among these prototypes there seems to have been none of man 
himself, but in some vaguely imagined way he has been generated by 
them, and his physical as well as his spiritual nature is nourished and 
augmented through them. His physical dependence upon these 
sources of power is illustrated in his ceremonies. Thus, when the 
tribe was about to set out upon the hunt as in the buffalo country, the 
leaders, who represented the people, gathered together in a solemn 
ceremony. They sat crouched about a central fire, each wrapped in 
the skin of a buffalo, their attitude and their manner of partaking the 
food for the occasion were in imitation of this animal. They became 
as buffalo putting themselves in the line of transmission, so to speak, 
appealing to the generic or typical buffalo that the life flowing from 
this particular projection of the creative power into the specific buf¬ 
falo might be transmitted to them, that when they killed and ate of 
the creature they might be imbued with its strength. 

This is all very simple to the Indian; nothing is mysterious where 
all is mystery. Ignorant of the processes of nature, everything is 
simply alive to him and all life is the same life, continually passing 
over from one form to another. He takes the life of the corn when 
he eats it and its life passes into and reinforces his own equally with 
the life of the animal which goes out under his hand. So he hunted, 
fished and planted, having first appealed to the prototype for phys¬ 
ical strength through a ceremony which always included the partak¬ 
ing of food. 

But the Indian recognized other needs than those of the body, 
his spirit demanded strengthening and, to satisfy its needs, he reversed 
his manner of appeal. Instead of gathering together with his fellows, 
he went apart and remained in solitude upon the mountain or in the 
recesses of the forest; instead of eating in companionship, he fasted 
and mortified his body, sought to ignore it, denied its cravings, that 
some spirit prototype might approach him and reinforce his spirit 
with life drawn from the great unnamable power. Whatever was 
the prototype which appeared to him, whether of bird or beast, or of 
one of the elements, it breathed upon him and left a song with him 
which should become the viewless messenger speeding from the heart 
and lips of the man, to the prototype of his vision, to bring him help 
in the hour of his need. 

When the man had received his vision, before it could avail him, 
he had to procure something from the creature whose type he had 
seen, a tuft of hair, or a feather, or he had to fashion its semblance or 
emblem. This he carried ever after near him as a token of remem¬ 
brance, but he did not worship it. His aspiration does not appear to 
have rested upon the prototype, although his imagination seems to 
have carried him no farther, but in some vague way each man had thus 
his mode of individual approach to the unnamable source of life. 

The belief that everything was alive and active to help or hinder 
man not only led to numberless observances in order to placate and 
win favor, but it also prevented the development of individual respon- 



Indian Burial in the Tree-top. 
















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD . 


715 


sibility. Success or failure was not caused solely by a man’s own 
actions or shortcomings, but because he was helped or hindered by 
some one of these occult powers. Self torture was an appeal to the 
more potent of these forces and was a propitiation, rather than a sac¬ 
rifice, arising from a consciousness of evil in himself, for the Ind an 
seldom thought of himself as being in the wrong, his peculiar belief 
concerning hfs position in nature having engendered in him a species 
of self righteousness. Time forbids any illustration of this intricate 
belief, the numerous ramifications of which underlie every public and 
private act of the race. 

Personal immortality was universally recognized. The next world 
resembled this with the element of suffering eliminated. There was 
no place of future punishment; all alike started at death upon the 
journey to the other world, but the quarrelsome and unjust never 
reached it, they endlessly wandered. 

Religious ceremonials had both open and esoteric forms and 
teachings. They were comprised in the observances of secret socie¬ 
ties and the elaborate dramatization of myths, with its masks, cos¬ 
tumes, rituals of song, rhythmic movements of the body and the 
preparation and use of symbols. 

As the ceremonials of the Indians from Alaska to Mexico rise 
before me, it is difficult to dismiss them without a word, for they are 
impressive and instructive, and although their grotesque features, and 
in some instances their horrible realism overlies and seems to crush 
out the purpose of the portrayal, yet they all contain evidences of the 
mind struggling to find an answer to the ever pressing question of 
man’s origin and destiny. 

The ethics of the race were simple. 

With the Indian, truth was literal rather than comprehensive. 
This conception led to great punctiliousness in the observance of all 
forms and ceremonies, although it did not prevent the use of artifice in 
war or in the struggle for power, but nothing excused a man who broke 
his word. 

Justice was also literal and inexorable. Retributive justice was in 
exact proportion to the offense. There was no extenuation, there was 
no free forgiveness. A penalty must be enacted for every misdeed. 
Justice, therefore, often failed of its end not having in it the element of 
mercy. 

To be valorous, to meet hardships and suffering uncomplainingly, 
to flinch from no pain or danger when action was demanded, was the 
ideal set before every Indian. A Ponca Indian who paused an instant 
in battle to dip up a handful of water to slake his burning thirst 
brought upon himself such ignominy that he sought death to hide his 
shame. 

Hospitality was a marked virtue in the race. The lodge was never 
closed, or the last morsel of food ever refused to the needy. The 
richest man was not he who possessed the most, but he who had given 
away the most. This deeply rooted principle of giving is a great obsta- 


716 


THE RELIGIONS OE THE WORLD. 


cle in the way of civilizing the Indians, as civilization depends so largely 
upon the accumulation of property. 

In every home the importance of peace was taught and the quar¬ 
relsome person pointed out as one not to be trusted, since success 
would never attend his undertakings, whom neither the visible nor 
invisible powers would befriend. 

This virtue of peace was inculcated in more than one religious ritual, 
and it was the special theme and sole object of a peculiar ceremony 
which once widely obtained over the valley of the Mississippi—the 
Calumet or Sacred Pipe ceremony. The symbols used point back to 
myths which form the groundwork of other ceremonies hoary with age. 
In the presence of these symbolic pipes there could be no strife. Mar¬ 
quette, in 1672, wrote: “The calumet is the most mysterious thing in 
the world. The scepters of our kings are not so much respected, for 
the Indians have such a reverence for it that we may call it the God 
of Peace and War, and the arbiter of life and death. * * * One 

with this calumet may venture among his enemies, and in the hottest 
battles they lay down their arms before this Sacred Pipe.” 

The ceremony of these pipes could only take place between men 
of different gentes or of different tribes. Through it they were made 
as one family, the affection, the harmony, and the good will of the 
family being extended far beyond the ties of blood. Under this be¬ 
nign influence of the pipes strangers were made brothers and enemies 
became friends. In the beautiful symbolism and ritual of these fel¬ 
lowship pipes the initiated were told in the presence of a little child, 
who typified teachableness, that happiness came to him who lived in 
peace and walked in the straight path, which was symbolized on the 
pipes as glowing with sunlight. In these teachings, which transcended 
all others, we discern the dawn of the nobler and gentler virtues of 
mercy and its kindred graces. 


Supplement. 



N interesting volume might be made, giving 
the history and opinions of extinct Religions. 
We barely indicate the principal ones. 

The Religion of ancient Egypt was ex¬ 
tremely polytheistic, and, like that of the 
ancient Greeks, was a system of nature-wor¬ 
ship. Osiris and his wife Isis were known by 
many names, and were represented by various 
animals that were held as sacred. Indeed, all 
animals were regarded as incarnations of 
spirits. The Egyptians also deified and wor¬ 
shiped their kings. Their temples were architectur¬ 
ally grand beyond all ancient structures. The 
wicked were supposed to be denied honorable burial,, 
and were condemned to migrate through a succession of 
animals. The Egyptian religion inculcated good morals. 
Murder, false oaths, adultery, forgery, fraud, usury, were 
condemned and severely punished. One wife was the rule, except 
with kings. Women were prominent in affairs. Aged people and 
strangers were treated with respect. On the whole this ancient faith 
was a salutary one.—See Murray’s Hand-book of Egypt and Wilkin¬ 
son’s Manners and Customs of the early Egyptians. 

The Religion of Ancient Babylon, Assyria, and Phoenicia resem¬ 
bled that of Egypt. It was characterized by the extremest polytheism. 
Glimmerings appear of a belief in a future existence. Star-worship 
and astrology prevailed. One of its great monuments was the Tower 
of Babel. Their religion controlled all their actions, and did not pre¬ 
vent them from, but incited them to ferocity, treachery, and allowed 
the most enervating practices. Rawlinson’s Five Great Monarchies 
and his Religions of the Ancient Worlds, and Sayce’s Empires of the 
East give us what is known of these ancient peoples. 

The Ancient Greek Religion is familiar to classical scholars. The 
Homeric Hymns, Hesiod, and other classics describe the ancient gods, 
personifications and deified mortals, whose whims and caprices swayed 
themselves and influenced mankind. Kronos, Apollo, Hades, Bacchus, 
Venus, and the crowd that filled the Pantheon, and their head, Zeus, 

717 



718 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 


\ 


the ruler of all things, all had their special work, and received the 
sacrifices of mortals. Their morals were low, their feuds continual, 
their practices disreputable, and their influence far from exalting. 
Besides the Greek classics, the reader will find the doctrines of their 
mythology in the encyclopaedias, Grote’s Greece, Newton’s Greek 
Religion, and similar works. 

The Roman religion was a modification of the Greek — less 
cheerful — and its deities less human than those of the Greeks. 
They are invisible, and do not marry, nor have progeny. Jupiter 
was god of gods, and was known by additional names, as Jupiter 
Pluvius, rain-god; Jupiter Tonans, thunder-god, etc . Mars was god 
of war; Venus, goddess of love; Pomona, of fruit; Flora, of flowers, 
etc. In later times the emperors were deified and worshiped. The 
Roman gods were sacrificed to, and appealed to for help by their 
worshipers, who had a deity for every locality and human relation. 
The reader who desires a more detailed knowledge of the gods and 
religion of the old Romans should consult The American Encyclo¬ 
paedic Dictionary, Mommsen’s Rome, and similar works. 

The Scandinavian mythology, or the Religion of the Northmen, 
was a savage system, whose gods were warriors, whose delight was 
carnage. Odin was supreme; Thor next in power; Frigga was Odin’s 
wife, and they, with other deities, ruled human affairs. Human and 
animal victims were sacrificed to them, and their heaven, Valhalla, 
was the reward of courage. Honor and kindness were manifested 
to friends, and cruelty to others. The cardinal virtue was bravery, 
and cowardice the greatest sin. Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology and 
Andersen’s Norse Mythology fully describe the extinct religion of the 
ancient Scandinavians. 

The cruel religion held by the Mexicans, and the gentler faith 
of the Peruvians, are described in Prescott’s admirable works. 

Those curious to explore fully the systems of religion once held, 
but long since extinct, will find most interesting matter in the histories 
of the peoples who once groped in darkness, and endeavored, without 
the light of revelation, to solve the problems of destiny. A bird’s-eye 
view of all that is known may be had by consulting the American 
Encyclopaedic Dictionary, and more complete details can be obtained 
in the books cited in this supplement and in kindred works. 


Confucianism and Christianity. 

By His Excellency LI HUNG CHANG, Viceroy of Chihli. 


T AFFORDS me great pleasure to acknowledge 
the grateful welcome to America offered to 
me by the representatives of various religious 
societies who have been engaged in China in 
exchanging ideas of the greatest of all truths 
which concern the immortal destinies of man. 

In the name of my august master, the 
Emperor of China, I beg to tender to them his 
best thanks for their approval and appreciation 
for the protection offered the American mis¬ 
sionaries in China. What we have done, and 
how little we have done on our part, is nothing 
but the duty of our government; while the 
missionaries have not sought for pecuniary gain 
at the hands of our people. They have not been 
secret emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their 
labors have no political significance, and last, not least, if I might be 
permitted to add, they have not interfered with or usurped the rights 
of the territorial authorities. 

From a philosophical point of view, as far as I have been enabled 
to appreciate, Christianity does not differ much from Confucianism,^ 
the golden ride is expressed in a positive form in one , while it is expressed in 
a negative form in the other. Logically speaking, whether these two 
forms of expressing the same truth cover exactly the same ground 
or not, I leave to the investigations of those who have more 
philosophical tastes. It is, at the present, enough to conclude, there 
exists not much difference between the wise sayings of the two great¬ 
est teachers, on the foundations of which the whole structure of the 
two systems of morality is built. 

As man is composed of soul, intellect, and body, I highly appre¬ 
ciate that the missionary boards in their arduous and much esteemed 
work in the field of China, have neglected none of the three. I need 
not say much about the first, being an unknowable mystery of which 
our great Confucius only had an active knowledge. 

As for intellect, they have started numerous educational establish¬ 
ments, which have served as the best means to enable our countrymen 

719 





720 


THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. 

to acquire a fair knowledge of the modern arts and sciences of the 
West. As for the material part of our constitution, these societies 
have started hospitals and dispensaries, to save not only the soul but 
also the body of our countrymen. I have also to add that in the time 
of famine in some of our provinces they did their best to the greatest 
number of the sufferers to keep their bodies and souls together 

Opium smoking, being a great curse to the Chinese population,. 
American missionaries have tried their best, not only as anti-opium 
societies, but to afford the best means to stop the craving for the 
drug. I have to tender in my name my best thanks for their most 
effective prayers to God to spare my life when it was imperiled by 
the assassin’s bullet, and for their most kind wishes so ably expressed 
in the interest of my sovereign, my country, and my people. 






















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